


&\ 



■/r' 



^I. '^- 



t^r- - 






V-^, 









/ > ' 






'fit f t'^y"r' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



B(?TZL TTZr 

©pp. itipijng^l :f tt. 

Shelf >.B.75 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

PRE-GLACIAL MAN 

AND 

THE ARYAN RACE 

A History of Creation, and of the birthplace 
and wanderings of man in Central Asia, from 
B.C. 32,500 to B.C. 8,000, with a history of the 
Aryan Race, commencing B.C. 15,000, their 
rise and progress, and the promulgation of the 
first revelation ; their spiritual decline, and the 
destruction of the nation, B.C. 4,705; the inroad 
of the Turanians, and the scattering of the rem- 
nant of the race, B.C. 4,304, as deciphered from 
a very ancient document. Also an exposition 
of the law governing the formation and duration 
of the Glacial Period, and a record of its effects 
on man, and on the configuration of the globe. 
A chapter on the deluge; its cause, locality, 
and extent; and an account of the "Cannes 
Myth." ^1.50. 

LEE fflDSHEPffiD PUBLISHERS BOSTON 



ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS 
JEHOVAH AND THE CHRIST 



A RECORD OF SPIRITUAL ADVANCE FROM 

THE HOUSEHOLD OR PERSONAL GOD OF THE 
SEMITE ABRAM, AND FROM JEHOVAH, THE TU- 
TELARY OR NATIONAL GOD OF THE ISRAELITES, 
TO THE UNIVERSAL FATHER REVEALED BY JESUS 
THE CHRIST: WITH THE CONTRACTS MADE BE- 
TWEEN THE HOUSEHOLD GOD AND ABRAM; THE 
TUTELARY GOD, JEHOVAH AND THE ISRAELITES; 
AND BETWEEN OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN AND 

ALL MANKIND ALSO THE CIRCUMSTANCES, 

INCIDENTS, AND EVENTS ATTENDING THE PREP- 
ARATION FOR AND THE PROMULGATION OF 
THE SECOND REVELATION . 



/ 



By LORENZO BURGE 

AUTHOR OF "PRE-GLACIAL MAN, AND THE ARYAN RACE" 



PUBLISHED A.D. 1889 




BY LEE AND SHEPARD, 10 MILK STREET, 
BOSTON, NEXT "THE OLD SOUTH MEETING- 
HOUSE," AND CAN BE HAD OF ALL RESPECTABLE 
BOOK-DEALERS, OR SAID BOOK WILL BE SENT 
BY MAIL UPON RECEIPT OF THE PRICE, $1.50 









COPTRIOHT, 1888, 

By LORENZO BURGE. 



All rights reserved. 



Abtas, Semites and Jews. 



BOSTON 
S. J. Parkhill & Co. Printers 



" God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, 
and God in him." — 1 John iv. 16. 

" If any man say, I love God, and hateth his hrother, he is 
a liar." — 1 John iv. 20. 

" And this commandment have we from him, That he who 
loveth God love his brother also." — 1 John iv. 21. 

"Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have 
need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how 
dwelleth the love of God in him ?" — 1 John iii. 17. 



" No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." — John xiv. 6. 

" Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God 
raised from the dead. . . . This is the stone which was set at 
nought of you builders, which is become the head of the 
corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is 
none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we 
must be saved." — Acts iv. 10, 11, 12. 

" Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which 
is Jesus Christ." — 1 Cok. iii. 11. 



PEEFAOE. 



In our previous volume, ''Pre-Glacial Man and 
the Aryan Race/' speaking of the history revealed in 
the early chapters of Genesis, we said, '' Great as is the 
value of this history, it has been preserved merely as a 
vehicle in which to transmit a record of the first reve- 
lation made by the Deity to man through the Aryan 
race ; the duty laid upon that race to promulgate it ; 
their neglect of that duty, and their consequent re- 
moval by God from the civilized world." 

In this volume we propose to resume the thread of 
history, and show the movements of the Deity in the 
selection of a people through whom, in the fulness of 
time, men should be sufficiently enlightened to receive, 
and from whom that being should proceed, who, as 
God's messenger, should again give to man, that reve- 
lation before given to the Aryas and rejected. 

In the volume mentioned, we have the record of the 
revelation made to the Aryan race, with the injunction 
to spread the knowledge throughout the world. We 
have seen that race neglect the opportunities granted 
them to perform that duty ; the consequent destruc- 
tion of their nation ; the banishment of the race ; their 

5 



6 PREFACE. 

relapse into barbarism ; and the loss to the world of 
the first revelation. 

After some two thousand or twenty-five hundred 
years, during which the Turanian, Hamite, and Semitic 
races kept alive the civilization and knowledge re- 
ceived by them from the Aryas, the Deity, who was 
at that time unknown to man, took measures to again 
reveal himself ; and in the Bible is the record of his 
work. In this book we find a nearly continuous his- 
tory of the Hebrew nation, and it also contains a 
record of their spiritual progress. 

Unwittingly, the writers have given us the means of 
tracing every movement of the Deity, until He for 
whose advent the nation itself was created, and to 
prepare for whose coming all this work had been per- 
formed, — he, the Christ, appeared ; and through him, 
the Deity, his law and requirements, were again made 
known, and again placed in the hands of the Aryas, 
with a repetition of the former injunction to promul- 
gate it throughout the world. 

The Christian religion has long been overburdened 
by the belief that the Bible is one book, all parts equal 
in importance, and all the product of direct inspiration 
from the Deity. 

This belief has caused the simple and direct teach- 
ings of Jesus, the Christ, to be covered and hidden by 
crude dogmas, drawn by ignorance and superstition 
from the old, barbarous, and cruel record of the deal- 
ings of Jehovah, the tutelary god of the Hebrews, 
with that nation ; until Christianity (so called) has 



PREFACE. 7 

become an instrument for clotliing our loving and dear 
Father in heaven with the garb of, and for ascribing 
to him the characteristics of, the outgrown and dead 
Jehovah. The Jewish nation is dead ; and the god of 
that nation died, as Jehovah^ with it. 

In the hope that Christian teachers and people may 
be brought to see the folly and crime of such teaching, 
I place this book in their hands, trusting it may re- 
move the scales of superstition and bigotry from their 
eyes, and that they may see the beauty, the power, the 
loveliness, the simplicity, of the teachings of the Christ, 
the anointed and authorized messenger of our Father 
in heaven. 

In our main work we have quoted freely from the 
New Testament, to show the identity of the Christ's 
teachings with the original. Incident thereto, we have 
exposed the prevalence of false Christianity, and have 
revealed the second coming of the Christ. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Interregnum 11 

11. The Hebrews 21 

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their 

Household God 21 

Moses, the Israelites, and Jehovah 

THEIR Tutelary or National God . . 33 

III. The Jews 53 

Cyrus to the Christ 53 

Anno Domini 66 

Jesus the Christ 72 

ly. The Claim of Jesus of Nazareth to be the 

Christ 87 

Messianic Prophecies 90 

Jesus of Nazareth 96 

The Christ 102 

The Son of God 104 

Corroborative Testimony 113 

Son of Man 117 

Other Testimony 122 

The Christ's Miracles 127 

Pre-Existence 133 

V. The First and Second Eevelations com- 
pared 140 

One God 140 

The Love of God 148 

9 



10 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGB 

The Kingdom of Heaven 154 

God ouk Father 160 

Eternal Life the Gift of God .... 167 

God's Plan of Salvation 178 

Eternal Death, or Dissolution. ... 184 

VI. Other Christian Subjects ....... 200 

Angels and Devils, Heaven and Hell . 200 

Miracles .^ 210 

The Crucifixion 216 

The Eesurrection 229 

The Disciples 237 

The Apostles 243 

The Second Coming of the Christ . . 256 

The Christ an Enigma ....... 262 

The Holy Spirit in the Nineteenth 

Century 268 

False Christianity 272 

Loyalty to God 283 

The Second Garden of Eden 288 

The Completion of the Second Reve- 
lation, AND THE End of the Jewish 

Nation 294 

The Essentials of Christianity. ... 297 

APPENDIX: 

Early Civilization in the Euphrates 

Valley 299 



ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 



THE INTERREGNUM. 



In our former volume, we followed the fortunes 
of the Aryas to the period of their extinction as a 
nation, and their final dispersion, which we are 
informed was in the time of, or at the birth of, 
Peleg, B.C. 2247 by the Bible chronology, but 
by the enlarged chronology caused by Assyrian 
discoveries, which we have adopted in our previ- 
ous volume, some two thousand years earlier ; viz., 
B.C. 4304. Bible chronology places the birth of 
Abram, during the reign of the Semites, at B.C. 
2056. In the Bible we have no account of the 
events transpiring during this interregnum of 
2,248 years, and we can only look to Assyria or 
Egypt to enlighten the darkness.^ 

1 In the appendix we give quotations from the writings of 
Professors Smith, Sayce, and other Assyriologists, showing the 
high state of civilization of the Semitic occupants of the Euphrates 
Valley at the time of Saigon I., B.C. 3800, and the consequent 
civilization of th€( original occupants of the valley thousands qf 
years hefore. 

11 



12 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Some four hundred years previous to the dis- 
persion of the remnant of the Arjas, the Flood had 
overwhelmed and destroyed the Aryan nation, 
which were then occupying the Euphrates Valley 
and the borders of the Persian Gulf. The de- 
struction of this nation cut off from the Aryan 
rulers of Egypt their source of supply for their 
army; and they were in no condition to success- 
fully withstand the uprising of the Egyptians 
under a native prince or leader, who, some time 
after the Deluge, vanquished and drove from their 
country the foreign race that had for so long a 
time ruled over them. 

B.C. 3800, we find Sargon I., a Semite, ruling 
over the country. The Turanian language had 
become obsolete ; and he caused a collection to be 
made of the numerous religious and scientific 
books, astronomical and astrological works, histo- 
ries, and other books written in the Turanian 
tongue, and appointed learned men to translate 
them into the vernacular. He also caused dic- 
tionaries, grammars, and phrase-books to be writ- 
ten, that the knowledge contained in these old 
books might not be lost. Through the work of 
this enlightened sovereign it is that Assyriologists 
are enabled to gain a knowledge of the Turanian 
language, and thus transcribe some of the earliest 
cylinders. 



THE INTERREGNUM. 13 

While the early Turanians were undoubtedly- 
aware of the previous rule of the Aryas over Asia, 
and of their destruction by the Flood, these facts 
would hardly appear in their national records, as 
they would form no part of their history. In 
course of time, having no interest in them, the 
whole subject would be forgotten, or become 
matter of tradition. 

The Semites would take but little interest in '^ 
the Turanian traditions respecting the Aryas, if 
they were aware of any. With them, the origin 
of civilization and learning had taken the form of 
myth, and the original meaning was forgotten. 
The allegory of the creation, Adam and Eve, and 
the deluge, was kept intact, and was treasured by 
them as a literal record of facts. In their popular 
writings they naturally introduced the names of 
their own gods as the actors ; as, long after- 
ward, the Hebrews did the same in part, giving 
to their god, Jehovah, the credit of the creation of y 
man, and the causing of the deluge. 

The fact that such a people as the Aryas 
should have existed, and ruled over Southern 
Central Asia for five thousand years, and yet the 
record of their existence be so completely lost 
that only the legend of the " Oannes " remained 
to indicate their work of civilization, is remarkable 
and strange. It must have required a long period 



14 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

of time, and many changes, to have so entirely 
obliterated such an existence, and leave in utter 
oblivion the nation which philology proves to have 
been the progenitor of the present most civilized 
races of mankind. 

The slow progress of two or three thousand 
years, the intervention of these two alien races, 
their long reigns, and the entire disappearance of 
the Aryas, caused their history to die out of the 
memory of man. Excepting the Oannes myth, 
not even a legend of them remained to attest their 
former existence, until, in the providence of God, 
the hidden records in the allegory were brought 
forth, and God's work and requirements made 
known.i 

In " Pre-Glacial Man " we have seen the inten- 
tions of God apparently thwarted. The race to 
whom he had intrusted a knowledge of himself, 

1 In Professor Sayce's " Fresh Light from the Ancient Monu- 
ments," we obtain some knowledge of another ancient nation, 
the Hittites, whose history had been lost to the world, except 
in the incident of the purchase by Abraham of the cave of Mach- 
pelah, and in the slight mention of them among the Canaanitish 
nations occupying Canaan at the time of the Hebrew exodus. 
The monuments lately discovered show them to have reigned 
over a territory extending from the Mediterranean to the Eu- 
phrates, and from Egypt to Northern Syria. For many hundreds 
of years they ruled this region on terms of equality with Egypt 
on the south, and Assyria on the east: yet, until these discov- 
eries, their former existence as a powerful nation was unknown. 



TUE INTERREGNUM. 15 

his laws and requirements, and of the immortal 
destiny of man, with the command that they 
should spread abroad this knowledge, and teach 
it to all mankind, had been false to its trust, and 
had neglected to fulfil its obligations. 

The main body of the race had deteriorated, 
had become debased and vile, and by the hand of 
God had been swept from the face of the earth ; 
while the remainder were occupying portions of 
Western Asia, and Europe, far from the centres 
of civilization and knowledge. They had become 
the savage, uncivilized portion of the human race ; 
and the Semites, one of the before-despised barba- 
rian races, had become rulers of Central Asia, 
and the inheritors of the arts, science, culture, and 
civilization of the world. 

In Egypt, one of the great centres of civiliza- 
tion, the native Egyptian race were ruled over by 
the Hyksos, a foreign race of shepherd-kings, who 
had conquered them one or two hundred years be- 
fore. These Hyksos were undoubtedly a portion 
of the Semitic inhabitants of the Euphrates Valley, 
who had overrun and now ruled over the Egyp- 
tians. 

The revelation made to the Aryas having thus 
been lost to the world, after a lapse of two thou- 
sand years or more God again prepares to make 
himself known to man. 



16 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Before attempting to trace the movements of 
the Deity in carrying out his purpose, we will 
endeavor to ascertain the physical, moral, and 
spiritual condition of the world, as exhibited in 
the ruling races of mankind at that period. 

Away back three thousand years or more, a 
branch of the Aryan race had held sway for eight 
hundred or a thousand years over these same 
Egyptians. The evidence of this foreign rule was 
shown in the advance made in some of the arts 
and sciences, and in a trace of the religion of the 
Aryas shown in the doctrine taught to the priests 
of a spiritual and invisible God who ruled the 
universe, and in the introduction into their own 
religion, of a system of future reward for the good 
and of punishment for the wicked in the world 
beyond. 

The religion of the Egyptians was otherwise of 
the very lowest description. They worshipped 
various gods, whom they supposed had power 
over the seasons, the crops, the insect and other 
plagues, and over the various powers of nature, 
with Osiris as their supreme god, and Isis his wife. 
They also held many animals as sacred, and sacri- 
ficed to them. While the priests and a few of 
the learned men held more enlightened views, the 
people generally were sunk in the darkest spiritual 
ignorance. In the arts and sciences of civiliza- 



THE INTEBEEGNUM. 17 

tion, they were far advanced, in fact, leading the 
world in intellectual knowledge, and in material 
power and riches ; having vast armies and navies, 
and holding commerce with Europe and the 
Indies. 

The Euphrates Valley, the other centre of civil- 
ization, was inhabited by the Semitic race. In 
absorbing the arts, science, and civilization of the 
Turanians, who had preceded them, they had, 
with the civilization, also adopted their religious 
beliefs ; and we find here a religion in some re- 
spects higher than that of Egypt, yet still of a 
very low order. 

They worshipped gods innumerable. Heaven, 
earth, and sea, each had its god. Every city had 
its tutelary god; and every house its teraphim, 
or household god. The Deity was unknown, and 
his powers and attributes had been distributed 
among the thousand and one gods of nature. 

Under these circumstances, how could a knowl- 
edge of the Deity, his laws and requirements, be 
revealed to man? The spiritual nature of the 
Semites had not been unfolded. This earth 
bounded their views. The idea of one God, the 
maker and sustainer of the universe, the father 
and lover of mankind, was too vast, and entirely 
beyond their comprehension. 

The Aryan race had been naturally of a higher 



18 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

type, a more spiritual race ; in their early experi- 
ence, they had been entirely secluded from all 
other nations. As the leading and most advanced 
race, they had received from God a gradual reve- 
lation ; their minds were fallow, and open to 
receive such spiritual instruction as might be 
vouchsafed ; and they had no pre-conceived ideas 
of God, or of the powers of nature, to be over- 
come. They had, consequently, received the first 
evangel pure and undefiled by man's devices. 

But the Semites were a race whose spiritual 
nature was as yet unawakened. Enterprising, 
ambitious, selfish, and cruel ; desiring and work- 
ing for temporal wealth; their thoughts limited 
to this world and their creature comforts, — how 
were they to be enlightened, and, through them, 
the world receive a knowledge of spiritual things? 

If the Deity had sent a messenger to proclaim 
his being and power to the Semites, he would not 
have been received. They had already gods of 
the heavens and the earth, whose powers were un- 
questioned. What could the new deity do more 
than they? If received at all, he would have been 
only as one among many gods. 

Apparently, the Deity could only introduce 
himself to mankind by creating a race or nation 
who knew no god ; who should be secluded and 
gradually instructed, as were the Aryas of old, 



TBE INTEBREGNUM. 19 

until they should reach a height of intelligence 
which would enable them to receive the proposed 
revelation. 

In the Old Testament, we can see what was 
done by the Deity. In the record made by the 
Hebrews themselves (a portion of the Semite 
race), we can trace every step taken by God to- 
ward the promulgation of the second revelation. 

What God determined to do, is shown by what 
he did do. In selecting an individual from the 
Semitic or Semite race as the progenitor or 
father of the people or nation who should be the 
instrument in his hands, again to give to man the 
revelation once given to the Aryas, but now lost 
and forgotten, the Deity must work with a race of 
duller spiritual perceptions, and one in every way 
inferior to the Aryas, whose work they will be 
called upon in part to perform. They are of the 
earth earthy in their nature. This earth bounds 
their views; only through their senses can they 
be taught. They must have an object to worship 
which can be recognized by the senses. 

As an inducement to right living, worldly bless- 
ings must be promised; and sickness, plague, 
famine, and war be threatened as consequent on 
evil-doing. 

It took five thousand years for the Aryas to 
reach the height of their spiritual knowledge ; but 



20 ABTA8, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

tMs people will not, can not reach that point at all. 
They will not be required to spread the knowledge 
of God throughout the world: that is the duty 
resting on the Aryas. This people will merely be 
required to prepare the way, and produce the 
man who shall in God's good time, through spe- 
cial instruction and inspiration, again give unto 
the Aryas the revelation which, once their own, 
was for a time taken from them because of dis- 
obedience and neglect of its requirements. 

The first step in the long progress of events 
was the selection of Abram, a Semite inhabitant 
of the city of Ur, a city in what was afterward 
known as Southern Babylonia. 



TElE HEBREWS. 21 



II. 

THE HEBREWS. 
ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB, AND THEIR HOUSEHOLD GOD. 

From the Hebrew Scriptures we learn that 
Abram was a citizen of Ur, one of the oldest of 
the Chaldsean cities. From the cylinders we find 
that at the time of his birth that city was at the 
height of its prosperity, and was the principal or 
capital city of the southern district of the country 
afterward known as Babylonia. 

Its name " Ur " comes from the tutelary god 
worshipped by its inhabitants, the moon ; and Ur 
means the moon-city. It was situate about six 
miles west of the Euphrates, perhaps ten or twenty 
miles from its mouth. The rivers Tigris and 
Euphrates bring down each year so much sedi- 
ment, that the land rapidly encroaches on the 
Persian Gulf; and the present mouth of the Eu- 
phrates is many miles beyond the outlet of the 
river at the time of Abram.i 

1 The ruins of Ur, now known as Mugheir, show that it was 
originally surrounded by a wall, and was a place of considerable 
importance. The first monarch of Ur, whose name has been 



22 ART AS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Terah, the father of Abram, the Scriptures in- 
form us, "was a worshipper of other gods," and 
Hebrew traditions call him a maker of images or 
teraphim. 

Teraphim were images of the household gods, 
made of any size, some small to be easily carried 
on a journey, and others of life size. Kitto's Cy- 
clopaedia says, " They were similar to the ' Pena- 
tes;'" and calls them "tutelar household gods, by 
whom families expected, for worship bestowed, to 
be rewarded with domestic prosperity, such as 
plenty of food, health, and the various necessaries 
of domestic life." 

In Genesis it is stated, that Rachel, the wife of 
Jacob, secreted her father Laban's images, or ter- 
aphim ; and Laban, in his interview v»rith Jacob, 
charges him with having "stolen his gods." 
When Jacob goes to Bethel, at the command of 
his god, he orders his household to " put away the 
strange gods that are among you," evidently re- 
ferring to images or teraphim. In Judges, Micah, 
it is stated, "made an ephod, and teraphim," for 
the purpose of worship. These household gods 

preserved, is Lig-Bagus, wno ruled apparently a little before the 
time of Abram. He extended his empire by conquest over niost 
of Southern Babylonia. At Ur, he built a temple to the moon- 
god, a tower, and a palace; remains of the temple still exist. 
He also erected a temple in Larsa; one to the god Anu, in Erech; 
and one to Bel, at Nipur. 



THE HEBREWS. 23 

were well known to the Israelites, both before and 
after Moses. 

To understand the Bible account of Abram, we 
must first know what were the influences sur- 
rounding him during his sixty years' residence in 
Ur, previous to his removal with his father Terah. 
This knowledge we obtain from the Babylonian 
cylinders. 

The Semites in the Euphrates Valley, as we have 
before said, were worshippers of many gods. The 
whole universe was divided up among them. 
Anu was the supreme ruler of the heavens, and 
had command over the seven baleful spirits of the 
air, or winds. Bel, or Belus, the Baal of Scrip- 
ture, was god of the middle region ; he represented 
the principle of active and creative life, and held 
sway on earth. Hea governed the regions under 
the earth, and the sea. The throne-bearers, or 
seven wicked spirits of the sea, were under his 
control. Hea was also the representative of wis- 
dom. Vul, the son of Anu, was the god of the 
atmosphere and its phenomena. Anatu, the wife 
of Anu, was goddess of life and death. Istar, 
daughter of Anu, afterward known as Astarte or 
Venus, and in Scripture as Ashtoreth, represented' 
the heavenly bodies. She is also portrayed as the 
mother of mankind, and as the goddess of licen- 
tious love. Elu, prince of gods, was the principal 



24 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

god of war, and is afterward known as Mars. 
Nagal was also a war-god. Shamus was the sun- 
god. Merodach was benefactor of mankind ; Mak- 
lin, god of dreams ; with many others of less note, 
also tutelary gods of the various cities and villages, 
down to the tutelar household gods. A change 
of rulers frequently caused a change in the god 
worshipped in the city or country. The same was 
true of the household god. Those old Babylo- 
nians believed that the gods desired sacrifice ; the 
burning of fragrant woods and the flavors of 
burning flesh were grateful to them, and they 
would flock in crowds to smell the sacrifice. The 
Bible says of the sacrifice of Noah, "and the 
Lord smelled a sweet savor;" and the Babylonian 
legend, speaking of the same thing, says, "The 
gods collected at its burning ; the gods like flies 
over the sacrifice gathered," In return for this 
sacrifice (which was not an act of worship as we 
understand it, but merely an offering for benefits 
received or expected), the god to whom the sac- 
rifice was offered, it was believed, would protect, 
care for, and aid the worshipper in his undertak- 
ings, and give him health, food, and success. If 
the worshipper did not succeed, he became dissat- 
isfied with his god, and unceremoniously dethroned 
him as weak and powerless, and put in his place 
another, and, as he hoped, a more powerful deity. 



THE HEBREWS. 25 

They had no fear, love, or reverence for them: 
they were merely convenient helpers. 

The supreme god Ann, with Bel, god of earth, 
and Hea, god of the sea, they believed to have 
been created by the forces of nature ; with the ex- 
ception of these and their immediate descendants, 
they believed the gods to have been men, who, for 
services rendered on earth, had been made immor- 
tal. By thus becoming immortal, they had ob- 
tained and wielded power beyond that of man, 
and became gods. 

In the Book of Acts, we read that the inhabit- 
ants 01 Lystra desired to offer sacrifice to Barna- 
bas and Paul, as being Jupiter and Mercury. 
After the shipwreck at Melita, Paul shook off the 
viper that had fastened on his hand, without in- 
jury ; and they said, '* He is a god." The Lares 
and Penates are the same as the household gods 
of Abram's time ; and a Christian adaptation of 
the same belief is seen in Europe in the Roman- 
Catholic worship of saints. 

The duties of the household god, in return for 
sacrificial offerings, are expressed in the covenant 
or bargain made by Jacob with his god as 
recorded in Genesis: — 

" Jacob vowed a vow, saying. If God will be 
with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, 
and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put 



26 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

on, so that I come again to my father's house in 
peace, then shall the Lord be my Lord." 

This illustrates the belief and the expectation 
of the men of those times, and shows the nature 
of the covenant or bargain made between the par- 
ties. In payment for this care and these blessings, 
Jacob promises the usual sacrifice. " Of all thou 
shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto 
thee : " in other words, will spend that amount in 
incense and sacrifices. ^ 

We smile at the Eastern legends and traditions 
respecting Abraham : yet Christians have fallen 
into as great a misconception of his character, by 
imagining that the god with whom he covenanted 
and conversed was the Deity as revealed by the 
Christ two thousand years later. Jehovah, the 
Hebrew tutelary god revealed by Moses ; and our 
Father, revealed by the Christ, — were both alike 
unknown to Abraham. 

Then, who and what was the god revealed to 
Abram? and what does the Scripture story mean? 

Abram for sixty years was a resident of Ur. 
He was in no way different from the other inhab- 
itants of the city. Like them he was a believer 

1 Undoulbtedly, most Christians in their early manhood 
would gladly make an agreement to give ten per cent of their 
income to the support of religion or to charity, upon a contract 
like the above. Yet how few from their incomes pay to the Giver 
any such proportion! 



THE HEBREWS. 27 

in, and a worshipper of, the gods of Babylonia: he 
knew no others. At sixty years of age he jour- 
neyed to Haran with his father, who took with 
him his gods ; and there the family remained until 
the death of Terah. 

Previous to this time, Abram had received this 
message, as he believed, from a household god: 
" I will make of thee a great nation, and I will 
bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou 
shalt be a blessing ; and I will bless them that 
bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee ; and 
in thee shall all the families of the earth be 
blessed." This was the promise. The consider- 
ation for all these blessings was, " Get thee out of 
thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy 
father's house, unto a land that I will show thee." 

We see that he did not do this until his father's 
death ; then " Abram departed, . . . and they went 
forth into the land of Canaan." Abram showed 
that he had faith in the promise, by fulfilling the 
condition ; and this was the first step in the con- 
tract made between Abram, and the Deity in the 
character of a household god. 

A revelation such as was afterward made 
through the Christ could not have been under- 
stood by the Semites at that time, neither were 
they far enough advanced at the time of Moses. 
God reveals himself to the extent of the ability 



28 AETAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

of man to receive. For eighteen hundred years we 
have had the Christ's revelation ; yet how few 
Christians have the ability to receive it to-day ! 

To reach or influence man, the only way open 
was for the Deity to meet man on his own plane 
of knowledge and belief, crude as it was, and 
through that belief carry forward his own objects ; 
and that is what he did do. 

Abram believed that his worship of a household 
god made it obligatory on the part of that god to 
help him. He received the proposition of the god 
naturally, and showed his faith in the message by 
removing to the land pointed out. That was the 
first step, and fulfilled his part of the agreement 
or covenant. 

Abram's obedience received its reward by a 
visible or personal appearance, and he was en- 
couraged by a promise of a gift of the land to 
his seed. In answer Abram erected an altar on 
the plain of Moreh and afterward at Bethel, and 
offered sacrifice to this god ; this was equal to a 
vow of confidence. From thence he travelled to 
Egypt, where he was protected by his god ; and he 
returned to Bethel laden with riches. In return 
for this protection and increase, he called upon 
the name of, or sacrificed to, his god. 

At a later period the promise was made more 
particular in its terms, and stronger; and the 



THE HEBBEWS. 29 

promised protection was soon put to the test in 
his conflict with Chedorlaomer and the allied 
kings, in which he won the battle, and rescued Lot 
from bondage. On his return he was met by 
Melchizedek, who informed him that he had con- 
quered Chedorlaomer by the aid of " the most 
high God, possessor of heaven and earth." This 
was the first knowledge Abram had received as to 
the personality or position of the god whom he 
served ; and he immediately gave the credit of his 
success to the " most high God, possessor of 
heaven and earth," in his response to the king 
of Sodom. Every god previously known to Abram 
had a name, but as yet he did not know the name 
of the god he served. 

After these things, Abram was still more 
strengthened by the promise, " Fear not, Abram : 
I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward," 
and with the additional promise of a son, and that 
his seed should be in number as the stars in 
heaven. Then comes the dream, in which the 
servitude of the Hebrews was foretold, and the 
result ; and a covenant, or agreement of possession, 
was made with Abram. We see that the prom- 
ises of the god were continually enlarged, and 
Abram was prospered in all his undertakings. 
Coming in contact with the king of Egypt, it was 
Abram's god who was known and acknowledged. 



30 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Thus the Deity endeavored to enlarge Abram's 
idea of his power, and to strengthen his confi- 
dence in him. 

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, his 
god, as he believed, appeared unto him, and re- 
vealed himself as the " Almighty God," and talked 
with him ; changed his name to Abraham, and es- 
tablished with him the covenant of circumcision ; 
and '' he and all the men of his house were circum- 
cised the same day." Shortly after, Abraham held 
an argument with a being who he believed was 
his god, relative to the destruction of the cities 
of the plain. 

In all these interviews, in which God is repre- 
sented as appearing in the form of a man, and 
holding intercourse, face to face, with Abraham, 
we must remember what Abraham's belief was. 
A man who had become immortal was to him a 
god. He would meet one, so immortalized into 
a god, on a plane of equality. The exhibition of 
any extraordinary power by a being in human 
form would lead Abraham to believe in him as a 
god, — as did the Grecians long years afterward ; 
and as did Jacob, when he wrestled all night with 
a man, who then, with a touch of his finger, put 
out his thigh-joint ; and Jacob said, " I have seen 
God face to face, and my life is preserved." At a 
later time, the Deity said unto Moses, speaking of 



THE HEBREWS. 31 

Aaron, " Thou shalt be to him instead of God ; " 
also of Pharaoh, "I have made thee a god to 
Pharaoh." Thus we see any unusual appearance, 
or the possession of extraordinary power, led to 
the belief that the possessor was a god ; and it is 
this belief which is expressed in the words and 
acts of Abraham ; and they make true the state- 
ment of Christ, '' No man hath seen God at any 
time." 

The contract or covenant of circumcision was 
continued with Isaac, and renewed with Jacob. 
God had been revealed to them, also, as the 
Almighty ; but they do not seem to have given 
any thought to its meaning, and do not give him 
his title. He is known to their descendants simply 
as a personal or household god, as " their fathers' 
god," or "the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." < 

The various experiences of the patriarchs, and 
the power shown in their behalf by this household 
god, gave him a place in the worship of their de- 
scendants ; and we find the acknowledgment of it 
down to the days of servitude to the Egyptians. 

Various events caused the children of Jacob, 
with their father, to settle in Egypt, a portion of 
the country being assigned to them as their 
residence. 

After the death of Jacob, several hundred years 
passed. In the changes of rulers, the former 



32 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

honored guests had become the bondmen of 
Egypt. The belief in the power and personal 
care of their fathers' god had, during their long 
years of servitude, died out. Some still remem- 
bered there was a god of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob; but they had lost all faith in his power. 
If he had at one time been " possessor of heaven 
and earth," as he claimed, he evidently had lost 
his power on the earth. Had he not led them into 
captivity, and then deserted them ? Had they not 
besought his help, until they had ceased in despair ? 
The large promises made to their fathers had 
not been fulfilled, and apparently would not be. 
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was power- 
less, and his promises of no avail. For hundreds 
of years they had been bondmen, and no help had 
come to them ; and they had long ceased to expect 
it. The mighty gods of Egypt had proved to be 
too powerful for this household god, and they had 
no refuge. 

The descendants of Abraham had increased to 
millions. A nation, in numbers, had been formed, 
and kept separate from all other nations by the 
peculiarity of their position. The Deity had dealt 
with the patriarchs as a household god. He had 
obtained their full and unwavering faith by ful- 
filling his promises to them, but their descendants 
knew him not. 



THE HEBREWS. 33 



MOSES, THE ISRAELITES, AND JEHOVAH THEIR TUTELARY 
OR NATIONAL GOD. 

It is under these circumstances that the Deity- 
takes another step in the accomplishment of his 
purpose. Moses is brought forward as a messen- 
ger from this god who has been so long silent and 
unobservant of their misery. 

Up to this time, Moses' life had been an excep- 
tional one. Adopted and brought up by the 
Egyptian queen, he had received a thorough 
schooling in the religion of the Egyptians, and 
had been a worshipper of their gods. He was 
aware of the sufferings of his race ; at one time, 
in the heat of his indignation, he had killed an 
Egyptian in defence of a Hebrew, and had been 
obliged to flee on account of it. We may suppose 
that at this time he was conversant with the 
doings of the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob : 
perhaps he had hoped the Hebrews might some 
day gain their freedom ; if so, that hope had died 
out, and he was quietly passing his days in keep- 
ing the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro, in 
Midian. 

Moses was approached through a voice in the 
burning bush, claiming to represent the god of 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This voice expressed 
the determination of that god to free his people 



34 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Israel, and desired the co-operation of Moses. 
Moses had no faith in the power of this god, and 
no hope of freeing his people. How was it possible 
for this god, alone, to cope with the enormous 
power of Egypt ? He had no wish to become the 
leader of a forlorn-hope in any rash scheme for 
the deliverance of the Israelites. 

We see Moses' want of faith in the power of 
this god, in the reluctance with which he accepted 
the position urged upon him, as the proposed 
leader of his people. 

"Who am I " (he says), "that I should go unto 
Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the chil- 
dren of Israel out of Egypt?" Being still further 
urged, he says, " When I shall come unto the chil- 
dren of Israel, and shall say unto them, The god 
of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they 
shall say unto me, What is his name, what shall I 
say unto them?" When answered, he claims that 
"they w^ill not believe me, nor hearken unto my 
voice." To meet his objections, he is given the 
power of miracles. He then makes the slowness 
and hesitation of his speech an excuse for not 
accepting; and, notwithstanding this god prom- 
ises, "I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee 
what thou shalt say," he still hesitates, and seeks 
to get free from the proposed task. He beseeches 
the god to send some one else : " O my Lord, send. 



THE HEBREWS. 36 

I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt 
send." This unwillingness provokes the anger of 
the god; "and the anger of the Lord was kindled 
against Moses." His objection is met by appoint- 
ing his brother Aaron as his spokesman, and de- 
claring that to both his brother and to Pharaoh 
he (Moses) shall be as a god. 

It was not, as has been said, the meekness of 
Moses that led him to refuse tlie office proposed. 
The objections come from a man fearing for him-" 
self, and doubting the power and ability of the 
god who desired his services, to carry out what he 
proposes ; and who is consequently indisposed to 
take the prominent part insisted upon. He seeks 
in every way, by every subterfuge, to escape the 
task sought to be laid upon him ; and it is not 
until he is driven from all his excuses, his faith 
strengthened by the power of performing miracles 
which is bestowed upon him, and by the promise 
of personal protection by reason of the belief that 
he is a god, which is to be planted in the mind of 
Pharaoh, that he accepts the position thus persist- 
ently urged upon him. 

Moses was aware of the vast power of Egypt, 
and, like all others, supposed that power was ob- 
tained and retained by means of the good-will of 
their gods. They received enormous gifts and 
offerings; sacrifice and incense arose before them 



36 ABYA8, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

day and night ; and in return they blessed Egypt 
with happiness, prosperity, and power : and Moses 
felt it to be a dangerous thing to proceed against 
such a power. He is led on by degrees ; his 
first effort is against the weakest of the Egyptian 
gods. His success leads to more confidence hi the 
power of Jehovah, until at last he has measured 
his power single-handed with them all. This 
confidence is shared by the Israelites, who at 
first, watching anxiously his movements, are en- 
couraged, and finally are filled with joy and con- 
fidence. 

The Deity further reveals himself to Moses by 
name as Jehovah: "the existing one." By my 
name Jehovah (he says) was I not known unto 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

As in former times the Deity revealed himself 
to Abraham as a household god, meeting the 
expectations and belief of those times ; so now he 
takes a higher position, and proposes to make 
himself the tutelary or guardian god of a nation 
that he will form out of these Israelites. He will 
measure his strength with the gods of Egypt; 
will bring the Israelites out of bondage, and make 
them a nation. If he does this, they shall as a 
nation make choice of him as their guardian, 
tutelary, or national god; they shall be loyal to 
him, and serve and worship him alone. It is upon 



THE HEBREWS. 37 

this platform that he proceeds against the gods 
of Egypt. The Israelites believed in the gods of 
Egypt, in their strength and power; and the Deity 
meets them in that belief, and uses it for his own 
purposes. 

The bargain accords with the ideas of the 
Israelites ; it is in unison with their desires, and 
with the belief ot the times. It is the proposition 
of a god without a people, desirous of becoming 
the protecting or tutelary god of a nation, instead 
of being the god of individuals or of a family. 
His proposition is, that he will prove his power ; 
and if successful, he is to be their god. As the 
god of a nation, sacrifices would be offered daily ; 
which, according to the belief of the times, was 
all that was desired by the gods. If he succeeds 
in his undertaking, they will gladly choose so 
powerful a god, as their national god, and will 
rejoice to be adopted by him. 

This bargain or agreement is expressed by the 
Deity, as Jehovah, to Moses, as follows : — 

"Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh, 
for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and 
with a strong hand shall he drive them out of 
his land. . . . Say unto the children of Israel, I 
am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under 
the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you 
out of their bondage ; and I will redeem you with 



38 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

a stretclied-out arm, and with great judgments; 
and I will take you to me for a people, and I will 
be to you a God, and ye shall know that I am 
your God, which bringeth you out from under the 
burden of the Egyptians ; and I will bring you in 
unto the land concerning the which I did swear 
to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and 
I will give it to you for an heritage; I am the 
Lord." This is the proposition of Jehovah to this 
people. 

Here were two or three millions of bond men 
and women, a people robbed of all manliness by 
long years of servitude ; slaves, ignorant and 
superstitious, desiring only creature comforts, 
satisfied with their servitude if only well fed; 
worshippers, if at all, of the gods of Egypt. These 
people, so debased, were under subjection to the 
most enlightened and powerful nation existing; 
at that time in the height of their power and 
glory ; their country the seat of learning, arts, and 
civilization, and their gods the most powerful of 
any nation ; with immense armies, and all the 
resources necessary for protection or offence ; a 
nation whose interest it was to keep these people 
in bondage. How could Jehovah, alone and 
unaided, accomplish the work he proposed ? How 
could he break the chains of the Israelites, and 
set them free, — one god against a dozen ? 



THE HEBREWS. 39 

The effect of the first visit of Moses to Pharaoh 
was to increase the tasks of the Israelites, and 
they were angry at his interference. What could 
give them faith sufficient to take the first step for 
their own deliverance ? 

Moses was the mouthpiece, the representative, 
of Jehovah, — his agent. He must prove to them 
that Jehovah not only had the will, but also the 
power, to deliver them. He must bring them out 
of their bondage boldly, with force and might, 
and the exhibition of great strength. Not only 
must this be done without their help, but even in 
opposition to their fears; he must do it in such a 
manner as to win their confidence, and give them 
faith in the ability of Jehovah when exerted in 
contest with the gods of Egypt. These gods must 
be put to shame, their power mocked and brought 
to naught. This could only be done by the direct 
agency of Jehovah, exerted through Moses, in 
such stupendous and extraordinary exhibitions 
as should be seen and acknowledged of all; 
even the weakest and most timid of the Israel- 
ites must be able to boast of the triumphs of his 
god. 

On the other side, how could Moses bring the 
Israelites out of bondage to the Egyptians, with- 
out their consent ? and how would it be possible 
to obtain that consent? 



40 ,AIiYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

There was no way to do this except by the use 
of the miraculous power placed in his hands by 
Jehovah for that purpose. The confidence and 
faith of the Egyptians in the power of their gods 
must be broken down and destroyed; and they 
must be made to realize that both their gods and 
themselves were wholly powerless before Jehovah, 
the mighty god of the Hebrews ; that their lives 
were in his hands and at his mercy. 

We see that the use of extraordinary and 
miraculous powers was necessary, on the one 
side, to inspire confidence in Jehovah ; on the 
other, to arouse fear and dread of that being, by 
proving that he was not only more powerful than 
all the gods of Egypt, but that all attempts to 
withstand him would meet with disaster, defeat, 
and death. 

The series of events, com^monly called the 
plagues of Egypt, were direct and systematic 
attacks on the various gods worshipped by the 
Egyptians. As each in turn was shown to be 
powerless to prevent the plague or curse brought 
upon them, the faith of the Israelites in the gods 
of Egypt was weakened, and their confidence in 
Jehovah strengthened ; until from, the bloody 
water, the lice and frogs, to the fire and hail, the 
thick darkness, and the death of the first-born, all 
the Egyptian gods, one after another, had been 



THE HEBREWS. • 41 

defied, and found powerless to protect either 
themselves or their worshippers. 

The Deity used this miraculous power for his 
own purposes. By its means he not only strength- 
ened the faith of the Israelites, but, in the various 
occasions in which it was used, the name of 
Jehovah was spread abroad, his power became 
known, and a fear of him existed in other nations. 

Here was a nation of bondmen. Fear was the 
only means of teaching, or keeping in subjection, 
these millions of rude, uneducated human beings, 
but little above the animals; slaves to their appetites 
and passions ; a huge, unwieldy mob of ignorant, 
lawless, headstrong men, women, and children, 
suddenly relieved from bondage of body and soul, 
left now at liberty to work their own sweet wills 
without let or hinderance ; with only one man to 
say them nay, and he self-elected to the position 
of leader, with no standing army to enforce his 
behests, no system of laws or punishments to keep 
them in subjection, and, if there had been, with 
no civil power to enforce those punishments. How 
could this one man keep these hosts in subjection ? 
By his own power alone, it was impossible. It 
was necessary at the start, and would be necessary 
throughout, for Jehovah himself so to enforce obe- 
dience to Moses and his requirements, that they 
should know and feel that punishment would in- 



■y 



42 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

evitably follow transgression; and that it would 
be quick, stern, and unrelenting. 

Notwithstanding the manifold and great mira- 
cles performed in relieving them from bondage, 
we see how weak and craven these Israelites were. 
The first apparent difficulty led them to fear the 
approach of Pharaoh and his hosts, and to ques- 
tion and distrust the power that had so far aided 
them; but the miracle of the passage of the 
Red Sea, and the destruction of the chariots, 
horsemen, and army of Pharaoh, again restored 
confidence in Jehovah. 

Having brought this people out of bondage, 
supplied them with water at Horeb, overcome the 
Amalekites, and brought them to a place of peace 
and safety, the next thing to be done was to estab- 
lish the authority and government of Jehovah 
as their god, and of Moses as his servant, and 
the medium through whom his will should be 
expressed. 

It is said of the American Indian, that when 
the whites first settled the country they found 
the native inhabitants believed in the Great 
Spirit, and in a place of reward for the good 
Indian hereafter in the happy hunting-grounds. 
This belief is far in advance of the religious ideas 
of the Israelites at the time of Moses. They did 
not believe in Jehovah as a spiritual god, but as 



THE HEBREWS. 43 

a god in form like unto a man, and very much 
like the gods of other nations, only more power- 
ful. They had no belief in, or thought of, any 
other life than the present. Moses, if he had any 
higher belief (which is doubtful), taught it not. 
His whole system of government, of reward and \/' 
punishment, is confined to this world. Indeed, the 
Israelites were too low, debased, and ignorant to 
understand any religion, or any system of govern- 
ment, that did not apply itself to the gratification 
of their animal nature, to their creature comforts 
and pleasures, and worldly happiness, on the one 
hand ; or to their fear of want, sickness, pain, and 
discomfort, on the other. Deity meets them on 
the par of their knowledge, on their own plane of 
thought ; and gradually, in after-years, enlightens 
them, until the time finally comes when the full 
revelation of himself in Christ can be understood 
and appreciated. But now the Israelites must be 
kept in subjection by fear. 

Moses was required by Jehovah to call the 
children of Israel together. He rehearses to them 
the action of Jehovah in bringing them out of 
bondage, and makes to them this proposition from 
Jehovah as a contract or covenant ; *' Now there- 
fore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep 
my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treas- 
ure unto me above all people (for all the earth 



44 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

is mine), and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of 
priests, and an holy nation." 

" Then all the people answered with one voice, 
and said : All the words which the Lord hath said, 
will we do." 

As the result of this agreement, a covenant was 
formed. " And Moses wrote all the words of the 
Lord. . . . And Moses took the book of the 
covenant, and read in the audience of the people ; 
and they said. All that the Lord hath said will 
we do, and be obedient." 

"And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it 
on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the 
covenant which the Lord hath made with you 
concerning all these words." 

By this contract, thus ratified and sealed, 
Jehovah agreed that they should be to him a 
peculiar people, a kingdom of priests, and a holy 
nation. For the position thus given, and the pro- 
tection and care promised, the Israelites agreed to 
obey him, and to faithfully keep the contract or 
covenant on their part. 

The consent of the Israelites having been given, 
Moses proceeded to proclaim a system of govern- 
ment suitable for the people over whom he had 
been called to rule. Having no earthly power to 
enforce these precepts, or uphold his authority, 
his position must be upheld by Jehovah as against 



THE HEBREWS. 45 

all others. Moses being his agent, his mouth- 
piece, all laws emanating from him are the laws 
of Jehovah, and must be so enforced. 

Jehovah having been chosen by them as their \^ 
god, no swerving from their allegiance to him was 
allowed. All other nations gave the credit of 
their successes to their god or gods : so must the 
Hebrews. They must offer sacrifices to no other 
god : such an offering would be disloyalty, and 
must be punished. He was to be approached with 
awe and reverence. They must fear him. 

The priesthood were taught caution by the 
death of Aaron's sons, who offered strange fire 
before the altar. Murmuring against God was 
punished by the plague caused by eating quails ; 
rebellion against Moses, by the leprosy of Miriam, 
and the destruction of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, 
and their adherents. In these and other cases 
the punishment was direct and severe ; and the 
Israelites were finally brought into obedience 
to Moses, and to a partial observance of their 
covenant with Jehovah. 

In accomplishing these objects, extraordinary 
exhibitions of the power of Jehovah were mani- 
fested, not only in the exceptional cases of the 
violent and quick destruction of thousands of 
the Israelites, but in the daily miracles, which, 
from their continuance, must have seemed to the 



46 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Israelites as the due course of nature, — the pillar 
of cloud and of fire, the daily manna, and its 
miracle of remaining over the sabbath. 

The Israelites had deliberately chosen Jehovah 
as their god, and accepted the obligations of their 
contract with him. He in turn had agreed to fulfil 
the obligations imposed on him as tutelary god of 
the nation. 

These agreements are matter of record ; and, 
that there may be no mistake on the part of the 
people, Moses wrote these obligations in a book, 
which was kept in the ark, — a vessel of safety 
or deposit; the ark of the covenant. In it were 
written the rewards, or blessings, which the nation 
should receive or obtain by compliance with the 
requirements of the law ; and also the punish- 
ments, or cursings, which disobedience would entail 
or bring upon the nation. This " book of the 
law " we have in all its essential parts, as origi- 
nally written by Moses. 

This was but the commencement of forty years 
of teaching and care. During these years, the 
original covenant was enlarged and accepted by 
the Israelites with due solemnities. 

Jehovah was represented, in the pillar of cloud 
and fire, daily before them ; yet we see how dif- 
ficult it was, to keep them subject to the teachings 
and laws of Moses. During these forty years, the 



THE HEBREWS, 47 

people were born again, free men, knowing no 
master but Jehovah, and no service but his. With 
the exception of the leaders, none of them had 
known slavery, nor had they been worshippers of 
the gods of Egypt. Yet Moses, ere he departed, 
foretold their backsliding, their serving of other 
gods, and the punishments that would follow. 

Later, they are taught by priests and holy men, 
warned by prophets, rewarded when they served 
Jehovah, punished when they turned from him 
and served other gods. And yet, what a history 
it is ! a history of failures to the end. 

Under the guidance of Joshua, the Hebrews 
entered the promised land, a people, large in 
numbers, without civilization, a horde of savages. 
Without experience in war, poorly armed, and with 
but slight means of attack, they overcame the 
nations possessing the soil, and obtained possession 
of the land promised to their fathers, Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob. 

The Canaanites were advanced in civilization, i^ 
having a knowledge of many of the arts, living in 
cities with paved streets, lined with houses of 
stone, and surrounded with stone walls.^ This 
people were also advanced in wickedness and sin, 
as well as in civilization. They worshipped Baal, 

1 Many of these cities still exist ; the houses, in some instances, 
remain to-day as perfect as when built, but uninhabited. 



/ 



48 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Ashtoreth, Moloch, and other gods. Human sacri- 
fice was common ; they frequently offered their 
own children on the altar, for personal favors, or 
length of life. The worship of Ashtoreth or Venus 
was accompanied by orgies the most infamous and 
foul. 

These nations would be a snare to the Israelites. 
They were too debased, too polluted, to be allowed 
to live ; and Jehovah determined to eradicate 
them, not by flood or earthquake or fire, but by 
war. These licentious and debased nations should 
be blotted out of existence. 

Even in these punishments, Jehovah meets man 
on the plane of his belief and practice. A religion 
of mercy could not have been understood by the 
Hebrews. The punishments or cursings of their 
own " law of the Lord " threatened the same 
consequences that they were required to deal out 
to the Canaanites. Earthly reward was the in- 
centive to virtue, and earthly punishment was 
the preventive of vice; and these were the only 
ones that would have had the slightest effect on 
them. 

We know how they failed in carrying out these 
requirements of Jehovah, that were necessary for 
their own protection, and the result foretold took 
place. The Israelites were contaminated. They 
neglected the worship of Jehovah, and served the 



THE HEBREWS, 49 

gods of the Canaanites, until at times they appear 
to have been worse, if possible, than the Canaanites 
themselves. In punishment for their sins, they 
became tributary to, and were ruled over by, the 
Canaanitish nations. Occasionally, when their 
sufferings had led them to turn to Jehovah for 
help, a hero would arise, and, in the strength of 
his faith in the god of his people, would release 
them from bondage. When they became a nation, 
the same results followed. When they obeyed and 
worshipped Jehovah, peace, prosperity, and plenty 
reigned in the land. If they departed from their 
faith, and worshipped and served other gods, they 
were punished by war, famine, disease, or some 
other curse of the law. 

But God's purposes were fulfilled as well in the 
disobedience of the Hebrews, as in their obedi- 
ence. Through their disobedience they were 
scattered abroad among all nations ; and disaster, 
bringing them back to their service and faith in 
Jehovah, led to a knowledge of the God of the 
Hebrews by other nations ; and thus each of these 
occurrences was a step in advance in the plans of 
the Deity, and the Hebrews were used as instru- 
ments of his will, even in their wilfulness and sin. 

During their existence as a nation, many 
prophets and wise men appeared among them, 
exhorting them to obedience and loyalty to 



50 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Jehovah, and threatening them with disaster for 
non-obedience. These constantly magnified the 
power of Jehovah, gradually enlarged the spiritual 
nature of his requirements, and endeavored to 
lead the Hebrews to a purer and higher faith. 
They also prophesied against many of the nations 
with whom the Hebrews came in contact. The 
fulfilment of these predictions strengthened the 
faith of the Hebrews in the accomplishment of 
those particularly affecting themselves; they were 
also intended, doubtless, to have the same effect 
on other nations who should see their completion. 
The faith of the Jews was intensified, and their 
religious views enlarged, by these means. Each 
advance was a step toward the object pursued by 
the Deity in gradually bringing the minds of the 
civilized races of the earth to the point at which 
they would be ready to receive the spiritual teach- 
ings of his evangel. 

There are three distinct periods of existence for 
man on this earth, — the animal, the intellectual, 
and the spiritual. In the five thousand years of 
the Aryas' occupation of the Garden of Eden, 
they advanced by slow steps from the animal to 
the intellectual, and finally at the time of Adam 
were fully enjoying the spiritual period. 

The Hebrew people, when they became the 
wards of Jehovah, had just emerged from the ani- 



THE HEBREWS. 51 

mal, and were but entering the intellectual period ; 
the spiritual was unseen and unknown to them. 

This ignorant and superstitious race required 
entirely different methods of instruction from 
those adapted to the Aryas. Like some scientific 
men of the present day, the^ required God to be 
present to their senses ; they must be able to see, 
taste, smell, hear, and feel him. The Deity met 
these requirements by exhibitions of his presence 
in the pillar of cloud and fire, and in the shechinah, 
or luminous presence on the ark ; by cleaving the 
Red Sea ; by the thunders of Horeb and Sinai ; 
by the daily supply of manna ; by the destruction 
of the walls of Jericho, and by many other direct 
deviations from the usually observed action of his 
natural laws. 

In the history of the Hebrews from their exode 
to their captivity in Babylon, as written by 
Nehemiah, we can trace the continual and exact 
fulfilment, on the part of Jehovah, of the contract 
entered into by him with the Hebrew race. 

It is evident that the Hebrews did not see, in 
the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, a 
final ending and annulling of their contract, — that 
they had been tried, and found wanting. 

There were prophecies made to Abraham and 
to Moses as yet unfulfilled. The prophets had 
given them visions of a great and glorious king, 



52 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

who should come in the might and power of 
Jehovah, and sit upon the throne of David as 
the ruler of the world ; and they commenced the 
establishment of a new kingdom, the building of 
a new city, and the erection of a new temple, in 
the full belief that they were the old ones revived, 
and that their contract with Jehovah was still in 
force. 

During their seventy years' captivity, the Jews 
were sifted ; great numbers returned to the 
original faith of their forefather Abraham, pre- 
vious to his departure from Ur. Of the large 
number who were carried into captivity, and their 
descendants, the most earnest of them alone 
returned to rebuild Jerusalem. From that time 
there was no more backsliding ; they became true 
worshippers of Jehovah, and believers in the 
contract made with him by their fathers. 



THE JEWS. 53 



III. 

THE JEWS. 

CYBU8 TO THE CHRIST. 

By permission of Cyrus, B.C. 536, about fifty 
thousand Chaldsean Jews, descendants of the He- 
brews that had been carried into captivity, re- 
turned to rebuild and rehabilitate Jerusalem. 

"By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and 
wept," appears to have been more a poetical figure 
of speech than the truth. Jeremiah had told them 
that their captivity would be long, and advised 
them, " Build ye houses, and dwell in them ; plant 
gardens, and eat the fruit of them." They took 
kindly to this advice, became willing colonists and 
contented subjects. This is shown in the fact, 
that of all the millions of Judah and Israel that 
had been carried into captivity during the previous 
two hundred years, and their descendants, so small 
a percentage had sufficient interest in the country 
and religion of their fathers to return to Jerusalem, 
and join in re-inhabiting the land. 

One hundred years before the downfall of Jeru- 
salem, the residue of Israel had been carried into 



^y 



64 ABYA8, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

captivity by the Assyrians. Of the inhabitants of 
Judah, two hundred thousand were carried away 
captive by Sennacherib, B. C. 702. Esarhaddon, 
about B.C. 670, carried away great numbers ; and 
in the taking of Jerusalem, B.C. 606, and the final 
demolishing of the walls and burning of the city, 
B.C. 582, probably a million or more men, women, 
and children were carried into captivity. 

Their natural growth during seventy years of 
peace must have largely increased their original 
numbers. Under these circumstances, the few 
(only one or two per cent of the whole number) 
that availed themselves of the opportunity offered 
to return to the countr}^ of their fathers, the land 
of promise, is evidence of the lightness of their 
bonds, of the liberty enjoyed by them in Babylo- 
nia and Persia, and of the fact that the Jewish re- 
ligion had lost its hold on vast numbers of them. 

In fact, the Hebrews, never tenacious in their 
religious beliefs, had in their captivity to a great 
degree adopted the religion of the Babylonians. 
It was the original religion of their father Abram ; 
and they easil}^ transferred their allegiance from 
the defeated god, Jehovah, to the gods of Baby- 
lonia. Others, who still retained the religion of 
their fathers, were bound to the country of their 
captivity by local attachments, or by ties of blood 
or interest. With the usual thrift of their nation, 



THE JEWS, 55 

many had become merchants, and waxed rich in 
this centre of the world's wealth and commerce ; 
and, with the greater part, the memories and tra- 
ditions of their fatherland had died out, and the 
plenty and luxuriance of their present home out- 
weighed the promise of the old. The Book of 
Daniel gives us some knowledge of their political 
position ; and the Book of Esther shows that later, 
in the days of the Persian King Artaxerxes, — the 
biblical Ahasuerus, — the Jews enjoyed exception- 
al position and power, one of the daughters of the 
race being the favorite queen of that monarch. 

The new and struggling nationality of the Jews 
at Jerusalem received but little help from Persia. 
Intercourse between the Jews at Jerusalem and 
those in Persia was comparatively infrequent. For 
a long time Jerusalem, with its out-lying towns, 
was dependent on itself for life, growth, and sup- 
port. This growth was at first very slow, and 
surrounded with difficulties, owing to the repeated 
interruptions and the enmity of the Samaritans, 
aided by the Ammonites, Moabites, and others. 

Seventy-nine years after the return to Jerusa- v 
lem, they were still in a chaotic state; and, B.C. 
457, Artaxerxes sent Ezra with some fifteen hun- 
dred emigrants to Jerusalem, with directions to 
aid and encourage the Jews in restoring and re- 
building the walls, and re-peopling the city. Ezra 



66 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

introduced some reforms, and corrected some irreg- 
ularities and abuses ; but, being a quiet and stu- 
dious man, lie added but little to the religious 
welfare of the people. 

Eleven years later, B.C. 445, Nehemiah was sent 
from Persia with the king's commission as govern- 
or, taking with him a thousand families. 

Aroused by him to new exertions, the Jews in 
the short space of two months rebuilt the city 
wall, working with weapons at hand, ready at a 
moment's notice to repel an attack from the sur- 
rounding foes. The reforms begun by Ezra were 
sustained by the power of Nehemiah. Gifts flowed 
into the treasury of the temple, and the deserted 
streets of Jerusalem were repeopled from the sur- 
rounding country. 

Nehemiah translated the "book of the law" 
from the Hebrew, and wrote the history of its 
origin, and the results to the nation, in the 
Aramaic tongue, the language then used by the 
Jews, and assisted greatly in placing the new 
nation on a permanent material and religious 
basis. With the exception of a few brief visits 
to Persia, Nehemiah administered the government 
at Jerusalem for forty years.^ His work and influ- 

1 Authorities vary with regard to the length of Nehemiah's 
terin of ofl&ce. The work done by him, and the stability given 
to the new nationality, would indicate a much longer time than 
twelve years. 



THE JEWS. 67 

ence gave permanent shape and form to the new 
nationality. 

For two hundred years Palestine was a province 
of and dependent on Persia for protection, peace, 
and prosperity. 

Under Persian influence the Jews imbibed some^ 
of the Persian habits of thought and belief. The 
Zoroastrian doctrine of one god, a spirit and 
invisible, maker and ruler of the universe, had 
in the course of centuries been changed. The ori- 
ginal monotheism had became a dualism ; a god of 
evil had been added, who was believed to be the 
especial foe of the Deity. These antagonistic 
forces of good and evil were supposed to be in 
continual conflict, and each of these powers had 
allied to them, and under their control, beings 
of inferior positions, and of various degrees of 
station and influence, such as angels, archangels, 
and powers of light on one side, and demons, 
devils, and powers of darkness on the other. The 
Persians also believed in immortality and in a state 
of future reward and punishment. 

The religion of the Jews, as taught by Moses, 
became enlarged in some respects by these influ- 
ences. The national god of the Jews, instead of 
being simply a local god, warring with other 
deities on a par of equality, was gradually en- 
dowed by them with the Persian idea of a spirit- 



/ 



68 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

ual god, maker and ruler of heaven and earth, 
before whom all other gods were but as dust in 
the balance. Moses, in his religious system, had 
no god of evil. Now, for the first time, the Jews 
recognize a power antagonistic to God, and teach 
hesitatingly a future life of reward and punish- 
ment for deeds done in the body. 

In the absence of nobility, the priestly class had 
obtained an ascendancy. The book of the law 
was regarded with superstitious reverence, as con- 
taining the record of their contract with Jehovah; 
and its laws became the laws of the land. The 
Messianic predictions began to have effect ; and 
slowly there grew up among the people the idea of 
a great conqueror before whom all nations should 
bow the knee, and whose dominion should be 
everlasting. 

In the overthrow of Persia, B.C. 331, Palestine 
became tributary to Alexander the Great. B. C. 
320, Ptolemy, King of Egypt, became their ruler; 
and they continued under the Grecian yoke for 
about one hundred and fifty years, until the inde- 
pendence achieved by the Maccabees about B. C. 
168. They continued independent until con- 
quered by Pompey, B. C. 63, and were subject to 
Rome until the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70. 

In the Hebrew scriptures we see the Deity form 
a rude, uncultivated horde into a nation. We see 



THE JEWS. 69 

him teach that nation by wise men and prophets, 
by prosperity and adversity, all the incidents of 
which they have recorded. We see him using this 
nation through all their sin and wandering, in hap- 
piness and misery, in plenty and want, in freedom 
and captivity, to advance his purpose. We see 
the name and power of Jehovah spread abroad 
among the nations, and the expected Messiah 
known to all. 

The evidence of all this is stronger, because 
unintentional. These records were kept by the 
Hebrews for the purpose of showing the original 
compacts, and their literal fulfilment on the part 
of Jehovah. The prophets foretold the coming of 
a Messiah who should wield extraordinary power, 
through whom the original promise made to Abra- 
ham, that "In thy seed shall all the nations of 
the earth be blessed," should be fulfilled. To 
him were given names and titles of power and 
majesty. His glory was magnified, and his coming 
reign was extolled in such glowing language, that 
the Hebrews, whose thoughts centred on this 
world, finally looked upon the coming Messiah as 
a king who should rule over the whole earth, and 
the Jewish nation by his means should become 
the ruling power in the world. 

Under this belief, the Hebrews guarded with 
care all the evidences and records of the contract 



% 



60 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

made by Jehovali with their nation ; forgetting that 
these very records condemned them, as having 
repeatedly broken their contract, and made it null 
and void. 

Believing, that as he had kept faith with them 
of old, had many times forgiven their backsliding, 
and had fulfilled all the obligations of the con- 
tract so far, he would continue to do so, they kept 
these records with great care and faithfulness. 

At the time of Christ, the Aryan race, which 
four or five thousand years before had been forced 
from civilization, and scattered to the ends of the 
earth, had again become rulers of Western Asia, 
Egypt, and Europe, and the leaders in civilization. 

Five hundred years before this period, the first 
advance had been made by the Persian Aryas, 
who conquered Western Asia and Egypt. Two 
hundred years later, the Grecian Aryas ruled the 
same countries and Southern Europe. And now 
for sixty years the Roman Aryas had ruled the 
civilized world. 

When, by permission of Cyrus, a portion of 
the Jews returned to Jerusalem, by far the greater 
number remained in Babylonia. At a later period 
the Jewish colonies in Egypt rivalled in num- 
bers the Babylonian colonies, each far outnumber- 
ing the Jews in Palestine. At Alexandria in Egypt 
two-fifths of the population were Jews. They 



THE JEWS. 61 

had a temple at On, or Heliopolis, and a large and 
beautiful synagogue in Alexandria, and enjoyed 
the privilege of worshipping Jehovah without 
hinderance. / 

Professor Allen, in his "Hebrew Men and^ 
Times," says, "Coming in direct contact with 
Grecian learning and philosophy, the Jews in 
Egypt gradually embodied with their own belief 
many Grecian ideas ; and as we approach the 
Christian era, we find in their writings evidences 
of new and enlarged views. Additions were made 
to the Talmud, mysticisms and speculations were 
rife ; the imagery of the Greeks had become par- 
tially incorporated in the Jewish faith and appeared 
in their writings." 

Philo, an Alexandrian Jew of a priestly family, 
in the latter part of the first century B.C., was a 
voluminous writer. He says, "None but a fool 
would think the world was made in six days, or in 
any given period of time ; since it is the Divine 
nature to act alwaj^s, and creation is eternal." 
The record of creation, narratives of Adam and 
Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
Abraham's visit to Egj^pt, and offering up Isaac, 
he claims are all allegories. 

The Wisdom of Solomon is supposed to have 
been written by a Grecian Jew at about or after 
the time of Christ, and shows the advance in 



62 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Jewish thought at that time. " God," it says, "is 
the lover of souls. . . . His spirit filleth the world. 
. . . God created man to be immortal, and made 
him to be an image of his own eternity." " The 
souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, 
and there shall no torment touch them ; for though 
they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their 
hope full of immortality." 

These enlarged views were most prevalent 
among the Egyptian Jews. We have no evidence 
that they had permeated to any great extent the 
Jews of Palestine. While the Egyptian Jews, 
under a government tolerating all religions, had 
become cosmopolitan, the various troubles in 
Palestine — the chronic state of rebellion in wliich 
the inhabitants indulged, their frequent uprisings, 
their sullen obedience, and revengeful utterances 
— caused the Roman government to use the strong 
arm of military power in repressing the turbulent 
expressions and acts of the populace. This unset- 
tled state of affairs, so different from the freedom of 
Egypt, prevented migration from thence ; and the 
enlightened views of the Jews of Alexandria had 
but little effect in the mother country, and were 
certainly unknown to the common people, whose 
ideas bore more of the stamp of Persian influence 
than of Greek culture and habit of thought. 

While, in the five hundred years of exile dur- 



THE JEWS. 63 

ing which the Jews had been scattered over the 
whole civilized world, their views in general had 
been enlarged, in Palestine they had added but 
little to the crude and primitive religion of Moses. 
Larger and grander ideas of Jehovah had been 
imbibed ; he was their one god ; they believed him 
to be stronger and more powerful than all the 
gods of the nations ; they feared and were proud 
of him : in all else, they remained an ignorant, 
bigoted, and self-righteous people. 

They generally believed Jehovah to be the 
creator and sustainer of the universe : yet he still 
remained, as they thought, the god of their nation, 
and held them in particular regard ; they were his 
chosen people ; he had made a compact with their 
fathers which they believed to be still in force, and 
they were impatiently awaiting the appearance of 
that Messiah, who, as his anointed and 'chosen son 
and representative, should restore Israel to more 
than the former glory under David and Solomon. 

These ideas of the future greatness of their race, 
and the nearness of the time, led them to be arro- 
gant and haughty. They looked with contempt on 
all the nations of the earth; intercourse with them 
was confined to the necessities of the occasion, and 
to eat with them was to become unclean. 

Some of the more enlightened of the Jews, 
notably the Pharisees, believed in a future life, 



64 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

and in a future state of reward and punishment. 
This belief was held with fear and trembling. 
Moses taught it not. They had no certainty; and 
in promulgating the doctrine, they did so with such 
reservations as to lead the common people after- 
ward to contrast the hesitancy of their teachings 
with the directness and certainty of the doctrines of 
the Christ, and to say of him, that he " spoke like 
one having authority, and not as the scribes." 

The Jews of Jerusalem nursed their pride and 
their feelings of revenge, by the hope and belief 
that the time was at hand when their promised 
Christ should appear, and establish the new king- 
dom or rule of heaven. 

The imagery of Isaiah and other prophets had 
been magnified into a glorious picture of a Messiah 
who should suddenly appear in the temple in 
great glory, clothed in the power and majesty of 
Jehovah, wielding the sceptre of dominion, — a 
prophet like unto Moses, with more than his 
power of miracle ; a son of God empowered from 
on high with the execution of those deeds and 
acts which should place Judah on a pinnacle of 
glory, the ruling power of the whole world ; a 
Messiah as king, who was to put all enemies under 
his feet, and rule forever ; all people, nations, and 
languages should serve him ; his kingdom was to 
be an everlasting kingdom, and his rule without 



THE JEWS. 65 

end; he was to be of the line of David, a king 
by divine right, and anointed by Jehovah, one 
whose sway was to be indisputable, irresistible, 
and universal. 

The time for his appearance was already at 
hand, as they believed; and each day they 
awaited with painful expectation his coming. But 
the days passed, time went on, and no Messiah 
made his appearance. They had waited until they 
had become heart-sick, and they hoped against 
hope, for the fulfilment of their Messianic dreams. 

Jehovah's system of rewards and punishments 
had been confined to this world ; it was the only 
system that would have effect on the minds' of the 
Hebrews, or be a sufficient incentive for them to 
follow the requirements of the law. 

This habit of thought led the Jews of this 
period to expect in the promised Messiah a tem- 
poral prince, who by miraculous means should 
overcome all resistance, and become the ruler of 
the world. 

While we can see that all the prophecies are 
fulfilled in Christ's spiritual kingdom and power, 
and to a greater extent than would have been 
possible in any worldly sway, yet we can also see 
how natural to the Jew was the literal understand- 
ing of the prophetic utterances, and the strong 
belief that they would be fulfilled in the Christ. 



QQ ABYAS, SEMITES ANB JEWS. 

Previous to the destruction of Jerusalem, large 
numbers of the Hebrews had fled to Egypt. 
Here they increased in numbers, and became an 
important part of the population. Also, great 
numbers of those carried into Babylon remained 
there, under the Persian sway ; they filled many 
positions of trust and honor, and became the 
merchants and traders of the country. 

From these two centres of civilization, trade 
and commerce carried the Hebrew to all parts of 
the civilized world, and their faith became known 
in all countries. 

The character of Jehovah as displayed in their 
history was infinitely superior to that of any of 
the heathen deities; and in the superior power and 
position that had become associated with his 
name, the thoughtful of other nations recognized 
a god whom they could reverence and worship. 

Thus, in the hands of the Deity, the Hebrew 
nation had become an instrument through whom he 
was known as the powerful Jehovah, and the way 
had been prepared for the great revelation through 
the Christ. 

ANNO BO MINI. 

About this time a child was born in the little 
town of Bethlehem near Jerusalem, of whom some 
wonderful stories were told by a few persons who 
had become cognizant of the events; but the 



THE JEWS. 67 

interest excited at the time soon passed away, and, 
had it not been for other incidents happening at a 
later period in the life of the child, they would 
have been forgotten and lost. 

The father of the child was named Joseph, a\/ 
carpenter by trade ; the mother's name was Mary ; 
she is supposed to have been Joseph's second wife. 
Both were of the line of David. They had left 
Nazareth, their native city, and journeyed to 
Bethlehem to be enrolled for the purpose of tax- 
ation by the Roman Government.^ 

While in this place a son was born. The khan 
or inn being full, they had been obliged to occupy 
a portion of the building usually given over to 
cattle ; and for want of better accommodation the 
child was cradled in a manger, or crib, from which 
the cattle generally ate their food. 

In the early morning, soon after the birth of the 
child, some shepherds appeared, and related a 
strange tale of angels who had appeared to them 
while they were watching their sheep, one of 
whom, addressing them, had proclaimed the joyful 
tidings that the long-expected Messiah had that 
day been born, and directed them how to find the 
child ; and then a multitude of the heavenly host 
united in songs of praise to God, who had remem- 

1 Professor Allen of Harvard University places tlie date of 
this event A.D. 7. 



68 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

bered his promise, and had sent a Saviour to his 
people. The shepherds, following the directions 
given by the angel, found this child, and then 
paid homage to him who they had been informed 
was " the Saviour, Christ the Lord." 

The child, having been presented in the temple 
on the eighth day, was named Jesus. He was 
recognized by Simeon, a just and devout Jew, as 
the " Lord's Christ " or Anointed ; and also by 
Anna, a prophetess, who gave thanks to God, and 
" spoke of him to all them that looked for redemp- 
tion in Jerusalem." 

Several months afterward, the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem were surprised by the visit of wise men 
from the East (probably Jews from Babylonia and 
Persia), inquiring for the king of the Jews ; and 
as their inquiries had especial reference to the 
Messiah, as the king whose birth they proclaimed, 
and whom they desired to find, they were directed 
by the priests to Bethlehem, as the town in which 
it had been foretold he would be born. 

These wise men — guided by a star which they 
called his star — were conducted to the residence 
of Joseph and Mary ; there they paid obeisance to 
the child as to a king, and presented him with such 
gifts and offerings as were usually given to a child 
born heir to a kingdom; and from thence they 
departed homeward. Shortly after, the parents 



THE JEWS. 69 

and child visited Egypt, apparently staying several 
years, and then returned to their former home, 
Nazareth. 

At this time, when he was perhaps five or six 
years old, it is recorded of the child, that "he 
grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wis- 
dom, and the grace of God was upon him." This 
is the noble and exceptional character given of 
him as a child. 

When Jesus was twelve years old, he visited 
Jerusalem with his parents, and showed much 
interest in and intelligence about Jewish history 
and religion. His precocity of mtellect, and 
maturity of thought, astonished the wise men and 
teachers at the temple ; and the record we have of 
him about this time is, that " he increased in wis- 
dom and in stature, and in favor with God and 
man." 

We have no further knowledge of Jesus until 
he was " about thirty years of age," A.D. 37. 

Several months previous to this time, a man 
named John had suddenly appeared in the desert 
places of Judaea, dressed in the garb of a prophet, 
proclaiming the kingdom of heaven, or the rule or 
government of heaven, to be at hand. This was 
the long-looked-for and expected announcement for 
which the Jews were waiting. The coming of the 
Christ the Anointed of God, and the establishment 



70 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

of his kingdom, they desired and longed for. They 
were tired of waiting for it, and had almost given 
up hope ; but here was a messenger giving them 
new life. The kingdom of heaven was at hand. 
The government of the whole world was about to 
be placed in the hands of the Jews. The glorious 
king through whose power (received directly from 
Jehovah) they were to conquer their enemies was 
soon to come ; and with awakened expectation 
they went out from Jerusalem and the country 
round about, to see this new prophet, and hear 
from his own lips the glad tidings he announced. 

They found this man proclaiming the coming 
of the long-promised Messiah, at the same time, 
however, calling on them to turn from their sins, 
to repent, and become better men ; that all injus- 
tice should be done away with, that they must deal 
honestly, aid each other, and prepare for the com- 
ing of the Christ by cleansing themselves from 
their sins. It was not enough for them to be 
Abraham's children : he who was coming would 
search the heart; only those who should bring 
forth the fruits of righteousness would be received 
into the new kingdom. As an acknowledgment 
that they accepted these terms, he required them 
to be baptized. 

These strange doctrines surprised and puzzled 
them. The scribes and Pharisees more especially 



THE JEWS, 71 

were confounded. They were unable to see why 
these doctrines should be preached and insisted 
upon as preparatory to the coming of a conqueror 
and king, — of a man who should by force of arms 
conquer the world. The excitement caused by 
this extraordinary preaching was great, and the 
fame of the new prophet spread over the whole 
of Palestine. Large numbers acknowledged their 
belief in him, and were baptized in public 
acknowledgment of their faith. 

Among others who came to hear the new 
prophet was Jesus. He was in the flush of man- 
hood, perfect in form and feature, and full of 
intellectual and moral vigor. He was known 
among his friends and countrymen as a dutiful 
and industrious son, a loving friend and neighbor, 
having a forgiving disposition, a compassionate 
spirit, an unblemished reputation, and as fulfilling 
all the duties of his position with energy and 
rectitude. 

Known to John as a man of pure mind and 
upright life and conversation, the application of 
Jesus to receive the baptism of repentance at his 
hands seemed to him inappropriate. His first 
impulse was to refuse, to disclaim for himself the 
implication of superior holiness : it would be more 
in accordance with his feelings, himself to receive 
baptism from the hands of Jesus. Jesus answered 



72 AEYASy SE3IITES AND JEWS. 

that he believed in the doctrines taught by John, 
and that it was proper that he should show his 
belief by receiving the same rite given to others. 
To this reasoning John assented, and baptized 
him. 

On emerging from the water, an extraordinary 
scene occurred : an appearance like unto a dove 
descended from heaven, and alighted on Jesus ; at 
the same time a voice was heard declaring, " This 
is my well-beloved Son, in him I am well pleased." 

JESUS THE CHRIST. 

Previous to his birth, Mary, the mother of Jesus, 
had been informed that her son was to be the 
Christ. The tidings of the shepherds, the ac- 
knowledgments of Simeon and Anna, the visit and 
offerings of the magi, all had confirmed the state- 
ment, and strengthened the belief in her heart. 
Yet what did she see ? Her child growing up to 
youth, to manhood, and on to thirty years of age or 
more, without one sign that these promises were to 
be fulfilled. Where were the evidences that these 
statements were true? Where were the glory and 
the splendor that were to be his ? Where was the 
throne of his father David, which Jehovah was 
to give him? where the power that was to be 
bestowed upon him? 

Mary was of a devout and affectionate disposi- 



THE JEWS. 73 

tion, reticent in all matters concerning herself and 
her son, " pondering them in her heart." It cannot 
be supposed, however, that she had never informed 
her child of the circumstances of his birth, and of 
the prophecies concerning him, both those in the 
Hebrew Scriptures, and those personal to herself. 
We may well believe that even long previous to 
his visit to Jerusalem at twelve years of age, he 
had received and pondered over this information, 
and had studied with enthusiasm the many prophe- 
cies of the power, grandeur, and universal rule of 
the coming Messiah whom he believed to be 
himself. With these feelings overpowering his 
mind, he takes this first opportunity to question 
the doctors relative to the prophecies respecting 
the Christ, which were in many respects appar- 
ently contradictory in their character; and his 
searching inquiries and earnest reasoning may 
well have puzzled these wise men. This also gives 
a key to his meaning as he inquires, " Know ye not 
I must be about my Father's business ? " must be 
preparing for the station I am to hold, the position 
I am to fill, as the Saviour and King of my country 
and of the world. 

With the impatience of youth, we may suppose 
he was already preparing for the part he sup- 
posed he was to play in the great events of the 
future as a leader and king. Yet the record says, 



74 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

" He was obedient unto " his parents. Even the 
dreams of future power did not prevent him from 
dutifully obeying them. 

As time advances, we may see Jesus quietly 
awaiting the call to action. His youth passes, and 
manhood is reached, still with nothing to designate 
him as likely to take any active part in liberating 
his country from the Roman rule. Would not 
doubts suggest themselves to him? Was his 
mother not mistaken ? Did she not dream ? Was 
she in her right mind when she supposed she saw 
and heard the things of which she had informed 
him ? How was he, a poor carpenter, supporting 
himself and mother by daily manual labor, — how 
was he to obtain followers ? Who was he, that he 
should command armies? he, whose tastes were 
entirely opposed to bloodshed ? How was he to 
govern a nation, much less the whole world ? 

While we may suppose thoughts kindred to 
these at times occupied his mind, at other times 
the conviction of the truth of his mother's state- 
ments would fill his heart ; and, while awaiting 
any movement which in God's good time might 
take place, he fulfils the duties of the hour, and 
prepares himself for whatever revelation may be 
made. 

We do not see him proud, vain-glorious, boast- 
ful, proclaiming abroad the position he was to 



THE JEWS. 75 

hold. His mother and himself were both reticent, 
retiring ; no one ever heard either of them speak 
of their hopes or expectations. 

Do we not see in all this the fact that Jesus was 
" tempted in all points like as we are, yet without 
sin " ? In all this watching and waiting, the hardest 
thing for an earnest man to do, was not the temp- 
tation strong to take the matter into his own hands, 
instead of awaiting the slow movement of events? 

Thus he goes on : thirty years of age is reached, 
and still he has received no call to action, finally 
he hears of the preaching of John : " The kingdom 
of heaven is at hand." The Messiah is about to 
appear ! Can it be ? He has received no intima- 
tion. Is he mistaken, after all? Are all his 
thoughts, his expectations, dreams? Is he doomed 
to utter disappointment ? Must he put away his 
long-cherished hopes, and see the work accom- 
plished by some one else ? 

With humility of heart, and humbled by his 
long self-delusion, he approaches and listens to 
the prophet. 

He is glad that the Messiah is coming, although 
he is not the chosen one of God. He crucifies all 
his old and cherished feelings and desires, bows 
down in humble self-abasement, and in lowliness 
of spirit asks for the baptism of repentance at the 
hands of John. 



76 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Up to this time we find no evidence in the rec- 
ord that Jesus had any knowledge differing from 
that of other men. Being in the flesh, clothed 
upon by the animal, he partook of the same spirit- 
ual disadvantages belonging to us all. Spiritual 
beings, children of the most high God, we are en- 
veloped in a garment of flesh which bounds our 
view ; we know not whence we are, or whither we 
go. The material existence of the present is alone 
known to us ; we see through the organ called the 
eye, as through the window of a prison-cell ; our 
vision is confined, and we know nothing beyond, 
unless enlightened by the Spirit of God. He can 
give us the power to pierce through the earthly 
matter, and see the spiritual things around us. 

As we observe the operations of God's Spirit in 
those to whom it was given, as related in the He- 
brew Scriptures, we find it enlightened them in a 
certain direction and to a certain extent only. It 
was a special gift for certain specific purposes, and 
outside of those special objects the holders of the 
gift remained as before. Moses had the power of 
miracle placed in his hands, that he might fulfil 
the purposes of the Deity. The prophets were 
enlightened by the Holy Spirit in one direction, 
and generally in that only. 

Up to this time, Jesus, as a child, boy, man, was 
a human being, tried and tempted even beyond 



THE JEWS, 11 

the common lot of men, with all the loves, hopes, 
fears, and desires, the ills and sicknesses, of other 
men. The animal nature was as strong in him as 
in any other man, and needed the same control. 
He was living in this animal body, subject to all 
the imperfections of the flesh, as are all mankind. 
But now a new scene opens before him. He is 
startled, as are those about him, by the appearance 
and the voice accompanying it, in which he is 
commended as the well-beloved Son of God. 
This acknowledgment of the Deity answered the 
belief and expectation of the Jews, that the Christ 
should be the Son of Jehovah. 

Stunned, amazed, he leaves the scene of his bap- 
tism; and driven by conflicting emotions, which 
crowd into and confuse his mind, he seeks the 
solitude of the desert, that he may there collect 
his scattered thoughts, and mature his plans for 
the future. 

The few short passages which he has left us of 
the temptations in the wilderness give us the 
key to long and painful struggles before he had 
conquered, and deliberately chosen the path he 
afterward so unflinchingly trod. 

A Jew, brought up and taught as a Jew, with 
all the Jewish hopes and longings, intensified in 
his own case because of his belief in himself and 
his destiny, he finds those hopes suddenly fulfilled. 



78 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

He is the acknowledged and chosen Son of Jeho- 
vah, the predicted ruler of the world, the expected 
Messiah, the Saviour of his people. 

All the ideas of his youth, the proud feeling of 
conscious strength and power, rush upon him. 
Now the hopes and desires of his countrymen will 
be realized. They shall indeed be relieved from 
their hated bonds to the Roman. The Roman rule 
shall be broken, and they shall be free ; and, be- 
yond that, his victorious legions, with the power- 
ful aid which Jehovah has placed in his hands, 
shall subdue the whole world, and the prophecies 
be completed and fulfilled in him. All nations 
should bow down before him, and serve him ; and 
he would be king and ruler over all. He would 
govern in righteousness; all wrongs should be 
righted, and he would give to the world peace. 
His sway would be universal and undisputed, and 
prosperity and happiness should abound in all the 
earth. 

As these ideas shape themselves in his mind, 
others arise in conflict with them. Half-forgotten 
prophecies respecting Christ, his afflictions, his 
rejection, force themselves upon him ; and as the 
turmoil of his thoughts subsides, and he grows 
more calm, other thoughts and ideas present them- 
selves. They take a higher and grander position ; 
he sees with more clearness the demands upon 



THE JEWS. 79 

him. War is a great and serious evil. Bloodshed, 
murder, rapine, all the evils attending it, fill his 
heart with sorrow and aversion ; he cannot be the 
means of filling the land with such horror. He 
must not tempt Jehovah to aid him in any such 
undertakings. Some other way must be found to 
establish the kingdom of heaven, the rule of 
Jehovah upon earth. 

As he grows calmer, and proceeds to examine 
closer his relations to God and to his country, we 
may believe the Spirit of God enlightens him, and 
ideas before unknown are presented to him. 

We see in one of the pictures in the temptations 
the desire to introduce himself to his countrymen 
by some startling miracle, like that of throwing 
himself from the pinnacle of the temple, thereby 
showing to all the fact of his miraculous power, 
and by so doing leading his countrymen to believe 
in him as the Messiah, the Christ of God. But 
this again is rejected, and gradually dawns on him 
the real character of his mission. He is a free 
agent. The power of miracle is in his hands, to 
use it as he sees fit. He can use it for his own 
personal benefit. He can turn the stones into 
bread, or gold, or any thing else he may desire ; the 
riches of the world are his. He can carry out 
the wish of his boyhood, the dream of his youth, 
and the desire of his young manhood. He can 



80 ART AS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

startle his countrymen by stupendous miracles. 
He can pose as a conqueror. He can fill the rdle 
of king and ruler of the world ; the power is his, 
and the prophecies apparently demand it. How 
shall he use this power ? 

Gradually, as light is given him, the real nature 
of the rule or kingdom of God dawns upon his 
mind. It is a kingdom not of this earth, but a 
spiritual kingdom. It is a new life, a new being, 
and the revealing of this new life, the require- 
ments of this new being. How should he pro- 
claim it? How would it be received? Would 
his countrymen be ready to give up the long- 
expected rule of their nation ? would they abandon 
their desire for revenge, and renounce their dream 
of the glorious reign of Christ over the whole 
earth? How hard indeed was it to look these 
matters in the face, — to see the right course, and 
then pursue it ! 

Crushing all his own glowing hopes and aspira- 
tions, his dreams of glory, pomp, and power, and 
at the same time seeing the aversion, the disap- 
pointment, the disgust, with which his claim of 
being the Messiah would be received, unless 
accompanied with the evidences of earthly power 
and glory, he resolves upon his course of action. 
As the subject enlarges, and he sees clearer the 
course of events, he realizes his situation. A 



THE JEWS. 81 

loving and compassionate spirit, yearning for love 
and companionship, he sees in himself a lonely 
and desolate man, despised, taunted, and rejected 
with scorn and anger by his own townsmen ; with- 
out a place to lay his head, weary and heart-sick ; 
his claim of being the Christ, although supported 
by miracles, rejected by the nation at large. He 
sees himself reviled by the learned men and the 
priests, to whom he had been taught to look up ; 
the subject of scorn and contumely ; even while 
using his power of miracle to relieve suffering, 
this very power credited to Satan, and he himself 
declared to be in collusion with evil spirits ; fol- 
lowed by a few ignorant but loving men, who, 
while they attach themselves to him as his friends 
and disciples, still have a confused idea that he 
will soon proclaim himself as king and commence 
his reign ; he sees himself in his great day of 
trial deserted even by his disciples, and left alone 
to meet a violent, painful, and disgraceful death, 
surrounded by scoffers, with the enemies of his 
nation taunting him and glorying in his suffer- 
ings. 

Such are the scenes that reveal themselves to 
his awakened perceptions. Must he choose this 
way ? Is there no other way ? Must he not only 
give up his dreams of earthly splendor as the ruler 
of the world ? but must he also take this path of 



82 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

humiliation, suffering, and disgraceful and violent 
death? 

Can we wonder at the time taken, — the days 
and nights of prayer and conflict before the war- 
fare ceased, and the decision was made ? Was 
ever any man tempted like unto this man ? 

The long agony is over. The struggle between 
the desires, inclinations, hopes, and wishes of Jesus 
of Nazareth, the Son of man, born and educated 
to rule the world as an earthly king and conqueror, 
and the duties and responsibilities of Jesus the 
Christ, the anointed Son of God, has ceased ; he 
has decided, and taken his stand. "Thou shalt 
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt 
thou serve," is his final answer to all these temp- 
tations. Jesus the Christ has conquered, and 
thereby has become the well-beloved Son of the 
most high God. 

Jesus the Christ appears, clothed with more 
than mortal power, yet meek and lowly in spirit. 
He has deliberately made his choice, has turned 
his back on every thing connected with the earthly 
rule of his nation, and uses his power (which, 
if he had chosen earthly rule and sway, would 
have been shown in miracles like unto those of 
Moses and Joshua) to relieve suffering and dis- 
tress. He goes about healing the sick and afflicted, 
and at the same time proclaims the coming of the 



THE JEWS. 83 

kingdom of heaven, which, he teaches, is the rule 
of God in the heart, the love of God and man. 
We see him worn with toil, heart-sick at the 
evil around him, and the spiritual blindness of 
those with whom he comes in contact ; we see 
him tried, and, though his judge acknowledges his 
innocence, we see him consigned to an ignomin- 
ious and disgraceful death. We see also his resur- 
rection, and his final departure from earth to 
heaven. 

Jesus of Nazareth, in the struggle in the wilder- 
ness, realized what was required of him : that 
all this preparation of two thousand years had 
been for a purpose, and that purpose was to give 
unto man the evangel of God ; that, through this 
evangel, man should obtain a knowledge of the 
Deity, and of his being and requirements, of 
eternal life, and the means by which it might be 
obtained. 

Jesus was a man, a free agent. Like you or 
me, he had to make a decision. Good and evil 
were before him. Which should he choose ? 

The one way led to riches, honor, and worldly 
greatness. By the use of the miraculous power 
placed unreservedly in his hands, he could bring 
all nations to his feet, and become, what his ima- 
gination had sometimes pictured, the monarch of 
the world. He could give his friends untold 



84 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

riches, and make them great and prosperous. In 
so doing, he would fulfil the expectations of his 
countrymen, and place the Hebrew nation on a 
pinacle of greatness, according with the apparent 
and generally believed prophecies respecting the 
Messiah. 

The other way required the giving-up of all his 
long-cherished hopes and expectations, his desire 
for the happiness of his nation and the gratifica- 
tion of their wishes. It led to a life of self-denial, 
of self-abnegation, of sorrow, of ignominy; to a 
struggle against not only his own desires, but 
also against the hopes and expectations, the fierce 
wishes, of his nation, and even of those whom he 
should select as his friends and companions. It 
led to the utterance of doctrines which would be 
rejected by his nation, and misunderstood by his 
friends ; and to a repulsive, painful, and ignomin- 
ious death by the hands of the public execu- 
tioner, deserted by his friends, and derided by his 
enemies. 

Look on the two pictures, and say what temp- 
tation was ever like that which assailed this man 
during the forty days of his trial in the wilderness. 

As we have never been tried like this man, and 
have never overcome like him, we can with all 
humility approach the Deity in his name, and 
as his disciples, endeavoring to follow his example, 



THE JEWS. 85 

honoring him as the means whereby the evangel 
of God was again given to man through his 
teaching and suffering. 

We have reverently traced the footsteps of the 
Deity in his " plan of salvation," in his endeavor 
to save man from longer spiritual ignorance, and 
bring him again to himself. We have seen him 
as a household god select a member of the Semitic 
race, separate him from his kindred, gain his faith 
and trust and that of his immediate descendants, 
and cause them to settle in Egypt, there keeping 
them a separate people until they had increased 
to millions. Then, as Jehovah, we have seen him, 
by the exercise of his power, bring them out of 
bondage, and form them into a nation who of their 
own free will choose him as their national god. 

We have seen the gradual advance of that 
nation in religious knowledge ; and, in punish- 
ment of their many revolts against their god, 
have seen them carried captive into many lands. 
We have seen them advanced to offices of trust 
and honor in the great centres of civilization, and 
have seen the knowledge of Jehovah carried by 
them into every land. 

All these were various steps necessary to pre- 
pare the world to receive a greater, fuller, more 
spiritual religion than any then known. 



86 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

When, in the fulness of time, the world was 
ready to again receive the evangel formerly de- 
livered to the Aryas, the messenger of the Deity 
for whose advent all this preparation had been 
made appeared. 

In the New Testament, or New Contract, we 
can find this (to the world) new revelation, in all 
essential respects the first revelation repeated. 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH, 87 



IV. 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OP NAZARETH TO BE THE 
CHEIST. 

In our first volume we have shown that God 
moves in the affairs of men ; that the Aryas, the 
most highly organized race created by God, en- 
closed for thousands of years in the Garden of 
Eden, free from interruption from other races, 
there taught of God, and brought to a higher 
spiritual position than any other race has yet ob- 
tained, — that this race, when brought into temp- 
tation by commerce with other nations, by riches, 
and by almost universal rule, gradually fell from 
their high estate, neglected the task imposed upon 
them by the Deity, became sensuous and vile, and 
as a nation were swept by God from the face of 
the earth, but as a race were preserved by long- 
previous migrations. 

In this volume we have traced the progress of 
the Deity in isolating the Israelites, and from 
them forming a nation through whose glory and 
shame, through whose successes and adversities, 



88 ABYASy SEMITES AND JEWS. 

througli miracles and prophecy, and through whose 
religious faithfulness in the end, a knowledge of 
God as Jehovah was spread abroad, and their belief 
in and expectation of a Messiah was made known 
throughout the civilized world. We have in the 
New Testament a record of the appearance, life, 
teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus of 
Nazareth, who claimed to be the Christ, and for 
the truth of his claim referred to the prophecies, 
to the testimony of his parents, of God, of John 
the Baptist, and of his miracles. 

Inasmuch as the Christ has been robbed of his 
distinction as the great exemplar and pattern for 
humanity, dethroned from the position of the 
greatest, the most virtuous man that ever existed, 
and deprived of his temptations, that greatest test 
of character, by theologians who have transformed 
him into a god, and thus taken from him his pre- 
eminence as the perfect man ; and as others, 
misled by German criticism and free thought, 
deny the existence of the Christ, and claim that 
Jesus of Nazareth usurped a title which did not 
belong to him, and thereafter lived a life of deceit 
and fraud, — we propose to bring forward in the 
following pages the principal proofs on the points 
above referred to, and also to examine the teach- 
ings of this Christ, to see in what manner they 
differ (if at all) from those of the first revelation. 



TBE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZABETH. 89 

In making this examination, we must bear in 
mind the difference in the circumstances and sur- 
roundings of and in the race to whom these reve- 
lations were made. That the first revelation was 
given to a race slowly emerging from the animal 
nature, through social and intellectual knowledge, 
to the spiritual. That in their slow growth and 
isolated position, they had no knowledge of or 
belief in any other god to unlearn. That one 
only god was taught them. That having no out- 
side influences to confuse them, every step in 
advance was assured and certain ; and, as a result, 
we have the first and greatest revelation given to 
man. 

The Christ came to a race naturally earthy, less 
spiritual ; to a nation believing in many gods, but 
in his time loyal to their owd national god. He 
came when certain beliefs and non-beliefs were 
prevalent and deeply seated, and not to be re- 
moved by the teachings of any individual, though 
he might have miraculous powers. 

Under these circumstances the Christ was 
limited in his utterances with regard to the 
fatherhood of God, the sonship of man, the being 
of Satan, the existence of hell, the fate of the un- 
enlightened, and on many other points. As in 
God's dealings with Abraham, and with Moses 
and the Israelites, he met them on the plane of 



90 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

their beliefs ; so now the Christ met the Jews on 
the plain of their beliefs, and used them in enfor- 
cing and illustrating his own teachings. 

MESSIANIC PROPHECIES. 

The Jews, at the time of the appearance of Jesus 
of Nazareth as the Christ, were expecting the com- 
ing of a Messiah. This expectation was based 
upon prophecies recorded in the Hebrew scrip- 
tures, some of which are as follows : — 

Abraham received this promise ; — 

"And in thy seed shall all the nations of the 
earth be blessed." (Gen. xxii. 18.) 

Moses, in his last address to the Hebrews, 
says, — 

" The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a 
prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, 
like unto me." (Deut. xviii. 15.) 

Isaiah prophesies, " And in that day there shall 
be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign 
of the people ; to it shall the Gentiles seek : and 
his rest shall be glorious." (Isa. xi. 10.) 

Jeremiah, years afterwards, records the follow- 
ing : " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that 
I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a 
king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute 
judgment and justice in the earth." (Jer. xxiii. 
5.) 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 91 

The Jews believed the time of the coming of the 
Christ was indicated in the prophecy of Daniel : — 

" Know therefore and understand, that from the 
going forth of the commandment to restore and to 
build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince 
shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two 
weeks." (Dan. ix. 25.) 

These they understood to be weeks of years, 
each week indicating seven years. Seven weeks 
and sixty-two weeks are sixty-nine, and seven 
times sixty-nine are four hundred and eighty-three 
years. 

The " going forth of the commandment " or 
order to rebuild Jerusalem^ was given by Arta- 
xerxes first in the twentieth year of his reign, or 
445 B.C.; and Nehemiah was sent to carry out the 
order of the king. Eleven years previously this 
same king had sent Ezra to rebuild the Temple at 
Jerusalem. 

The prophecy of Daniel says that the Messiah 
shall appear in four hundred and eighty-three years 
from the date of the order given by Artaxerxes to 
rebuild Jerusalem, which' would make the year A. D. 
38 the time for the anointing of, or for the ap- 
pearance of, the Christ. Luke, the only one who 
speaks of the age of Jesus when he was anointed 
by the Holy Spirit, says, "And the Holy Ghost 
descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, 



92 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou 
art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased. 
And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years 
of age." As there is an uncertainty with regard 
to A.D.,^ as also the statement of age is " about," 
we may consider that the prophecy of Daniel was 
fulfilled to the letter, not at the Mrtk of Jesus of 
Nazareth, but at his anointing; it was that which 
made him the Christ. The title of " Christ " did 
not belong to him until he was selected, appointed, 
commissioned, anointed, by the Holy Spirit. 

The place of the birth of the Christ is also 
indicated : — 

" But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou 
be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out 
of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be 
ruler in Israel." (Mic. v. 2.) 

The character and mission of the Christ are 
described as follows : — 

" The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the 
spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of 
counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and 
of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of 

1 Professor J. H. Allen of Harvard University, in his Hebrew- 
Men and Times, places the enrolment for taxation, which was 
the cause for Joseph and Mary's journey to Bethlehem, as occur- 
ring in A.D. 7. This would coincide witli the anointing of Jesus 
and his appearance as the Christ when he was thirty-one years 
old. 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZABETH. 93 

quick understanding in the fear of the Lord : and 
he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither 
reprove after the hearing of his ears ; but with 
righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove 
with equity for the meek of the earth: and he 
shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, 
and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the 
wicked ; and righteousness shall be the girdle of 
his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins." 
(Isa. xi. 2-5.) 

Jesus, as the Christ, quotes and applies to him- 
self the following : — 

" The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because 
the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings 
unto the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the 
broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, 
and the opening of the prison to them that are 
bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the 
Lord." (Isa. Ixi. 1, 2.) 

It was also prophesied of the Christ, that he 
should perform miracles. 

"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, 
and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped ; then 
shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue 
of the dumb sing." (Isa. xxxv. 5, 6.) 

There are also prophecies of a different charac- 
ter, to which, with the knowledge we have of the 
mission of the Christ, we give a meaning differing 
from the Jewish ideas and belief; — 



94 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

" Of the increase of his government and peace 
there shall be no end, upon the throne of David 
and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish 
it with judgment and with justice from henceforth 
even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will 
perform this." (Isa. ix. 7.) 

"They shall serve the Lord their God, and 
David their king, whom I will raise up unto 
them." (Jer. xxx. 9.) 

"And I the Lord will be their God, and my 
servant David a prince among them ; I the Lord 
have spoken it." (Ezek. xxxiv. 24.) 

"And David my servant shall be king over 
them, and they all shall have one shepherd: they 
shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my 
statutes, and do them : and they shall dwell in the 
land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, 
wherein your fathers have dwelt ; and they shall 
dwell therein, even they, and their children, and 
their children's children forever ; and my servant 
David shall be their prince forever." (Ezek. 
xxxvii. 24, 25.) 

"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one 
like the Son of man came with the clouds of 
heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and 
they brought him near before him ; and there was 
given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, 
that all people, nations, and languages should serve 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 95 

him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, 
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that 
which shall not be destroyed." (Dan. vii. 13, 14.) 

The prophecies teem with visions of the glory, 
majesty, pomp, power, and universal and eternal 
rule of the expected Messiah. When we consider 
the general ignorance of the Jews of any spiritual 
requirements, their low conception of God, their 
belief in earthly rewards and punishments, and 
their expectation that because of their careful 
and punctilious performance of the requirements 
of the law of Moses since their deliverance from 
Babylonian bondage they would be rewarded by 
worldly success, — we can easily see that these 
glorious prophecies would be received and be- 
lieved by them in their letter, and not in their 
spirit. The kingdom was to be an earthly king- 
dom ; the ruler was to be another David, who was 
to inaugurate a new government, much more glo- 
rious than the original. To him all the nations 
of the earth should pay homage, and to his king- 
dom there should be no end. 

We have seen the prophecies of the Messiah. 
Were they fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth ? 

The Christ was to be of the seed of Abraham. 
That is not disputed. 

He was to be a man " from the midst of you, 
like unto me," says Moses. 



96 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

In support of this we have the records of his 
birth and of his youth, testified to by unimpeach- 
able witnesses. 

He was to be of the root of Jesse and of the 
line of David. This is testified to in both gene- 
alogies, — the one in Matthew reckoning down 
from Abraham, and the one in Luke reckoning 
up to Adam. 

The prophecy of Daniel required the appear- 
ance of Messiah the Prince, four hundred and 
eighty-three years from the time the order to 
build Jerusalem was given to Nehemiah. We 
know the Jews, at the time of Christ, were im- 
patiently awaiting his coming ; and the time of 
his appearance was very near, if not at the exact 
date, of the prophecy. Jesus was about thirty 
years of age when he proclaimed himself to be 
the Messiah, apparently one year before the com- 
pletion of the prophetic time. 

The Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. We 
give herewith the testimony upon that point 
recorded by Matthew and Luke, of the birth of 
Jesus, with the accompanying incidents. . 

JFSUS OF NAZABETff. 

Mary, the mother of Jesus, testified, as recorded 
by Luke, that she was a "virgin espoused to a 
man whose name was Joseph, of the house of 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 97 

David ; and the angel came in unto her, and said, 
Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is 
with thee ; blessed art thou among women. And 
when she saw him she was troubled at his saying, 
and cast in her mind what manner of salutation 
this should be. And the angel said unto her, 
Fear not, Mary ; for thou hast found favor with 
God ; and behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, 
and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name 
Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the 
son of the Highest ; and the Lord God shall give 
unto him the throne of his father David, and he 
shall reign over the house of Israel forever, and 
of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then 
Mary said unto the angel. How shall this thing be, 
seeing I know not a man ? and the angel answered 
unto her. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, 
and the power of the Highest shall overshadow 
thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall 
be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 
. . . And Mary said. Behold the handmaid of the 
Lord ; be it unto me according to thy word. And 
the angel departed from her." 

The testimony of Joseph, as recorded by 
Matthew : — 

" When Mary was espoused to Joseph, before 
they had come together, she was found with child 
of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, 



98 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

being a just man, and not willing to make her a 
public example, was minded to put her away 
privily. But while he thought on these things, 
behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him 
in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, 
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife : for that 
which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 
And she shall bring forth a son ; and thou shalt 
call his name Jesus ; for he shall save his people 
from their sins. . . . Then Joseph being raised 
from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had 
bidden him, and took unto him his wife : and 
knew her not till she had brought forth her 
firstborn son : and he called his name Jesus." 

The testimony of Joseph (additional) as re- 
ported by Luke : — 

" And Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the 
city of Nazareth, to Judaea, unto the city of David, 
which is called Bethlehem ; to be taxed, with 
Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. 
And while they were there, the days were accom- 
plished that she should be delivered. And she 
brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped 
him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a 
manger, because there was no room for them in 
the inn." 

The testimony of the shepherds as recorded by 
Luke : — 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZABETH. 99 

" And there were in the same country shepherds 
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks 
by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came 
upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round 
about them : and they were sore afraid. And the 
angel said unto them. Fear not, for behold, I bring 
you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to 
all people : for unto you is born this day in the 
city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 
And this shall be a sign unto you : ye shall find 
the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying 
in a manger. And suddenly there was with the 
angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising 
God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and 
on earth peace, good-will toward men. And it 
came to pass, as the angels were gone away from 
them into heaven, the shepherds said one to 
another. Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and 
see this thing which is come to pass, which the 
Lord hath made known to us. And they came 
with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the 
babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen 
it, they made known abroad the saying which was 
told them concerning this child. And all they 
that heard it wondered at those things which were 
told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all 
these things, and pondered them in her heart. 
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and prais- 



100 AEYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

ing God for all the things that they had heard and 
seen, as it was told unto them." 

Testimony of Luke : — 

" And when eight days were accomplished for 
the circumcising of the child, his name was called 
Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he 
was conceived in the womb. And when the days 
of the purification according to the law of Moses 
were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem 
to present him to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice 
according to that which is said in the law of the 
Lord, A pair of turtle-doves or two young 
pigeons." 

Testimony of Simeon, as recorded by Luke : — 

" There was a man in Jerusalem whose name 
was Simeon: and the same man was just and 
devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: 
and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was 
revealed to him by the Holy Ghost, that he should 
not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 
And he came by the Spirit into the temple : and 
when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do 
for him after the custom of the law, then took he 
him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, 
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in 
peace, according to thy word : for mine eyes have 
seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared 
before the face of all people, a light to lighten 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZABETH. 101 

the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people 
Israel." 

The incidental testimony of the wise men, as 
recorded by Matthew : — 

"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of 
Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there 
came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, say- 
ing. Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? 
for we have seen his star in the east, and have 
come to worship him. 

" When Herod the king had heard these things, 
he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him ; and 
when he had gathered all the chief priests and 
scribes of the people together, he demanded of 
them where Christ should be born. And they said 
unto him. In Bethlehem of Judaea : for thus it is 
written by the prophet: And thou Bethlehem, 
in the land of Juda, art not least among the 
princes of Juda ; for out of thee shall come a 
Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. Then 
Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, 
inquired of them diligently what time the star 
appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and 
said, Go and search diligently for the young child ; 
and when ye have found him, bring me word again, 
that I may come and worship him also. 

" When they had heard the king, they departed ; 
and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went 



102 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

before them, till it came and stood over where the 
young child was. When they saw the star, they 
rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they 
were come into the house, they saw the young 
child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and 
worshipped him : and when they had opened their 
treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, 
frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned of 
God in a dream that they should not return to 
Herod, they departed into their own country 
another way." 

TBJS CHRIST. 

" The Spirit of the Lord " was to rest upon him. 
He himself claims that " The Spirit of the Lord 
God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed 
me." This claim is supported by the testimony 
of the voice from heaven, as given by Matthew, 
Mark, and Luke : — 

"And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up 
straightway out of the water : and, lo, the heavens 
were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of 
God descending like a dove, and lighting upon 
him : and lo a voice from heaven saying. This is 
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 

The testimony of John the Baptist, to the same 
event, as recorded by the Apostle John : — 

"And this is the record of John, when the 
Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZABETH. 103 

ask him, Who art thou ? And he confessed, and 
denied not ; but confessed, I am not the Christ." 
" The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto 
him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which 
taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of 
whom I said. After me cometh a man which is 
preferred before me : for he was before me. And 
I knew him not : but that he should be made man- 
ifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with 
water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the 
Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it 
abode upon him. And I knew him not ; but he 
that sent me to baptize with water, the same said 
unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit 
descending, and remaining on him, the same is he 
which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, 
and bare record that this is the Son of God. 

"Again the next day after, John stood, and 
two of his disciples ; and looking upon Jesus as 
he walked, he saith. Behold the Lamb of God ! " 

Testimony of the voice from heaven at a later 
period, as recorded by Matthew, Mark, and 
Luke : — 

" And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, 
and John his brother, and bringeth them up into 
a high mountain apart, and was transfigured 
before them : and his face did shine as the sun, 
and his raiment was white as the light. And, 



104 ARTA8, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias 
talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said 
unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here : if 
thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles ; one 
for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 
While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud over- 
shadowed them ; and behold a voice out of the 
cloud, which said. This is my beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him." 

We see that by the testimony of unimpeachable 
witnesses, the requirements in the prophecies of 
the Christ, regarding the place of his birth, were 
fulfilled in the birth and consecration of Jesus of 
Nazareth. And in addition we have the indorse- 
ment of the angels and shepherds, of Simeon 
and Anna, and of the wise men, as to his birth ; 
of John the Baptist, and the voice from heaven, 
as to his consecration. 

Tffi; SON OF GOD. 

Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, claimed to 
be the Christ, the anointed Son of Jehovah, the 
long-expected Messiah of the Jews. He said that 
God had selected and chosen him for a specific 
purpose, to do a specific work ; that he acted wholly 
as his agent and representative ; that what he said 
was spoken by his direction, and what he did was 
done by the power God had placed in his hands. 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 105 

In the temptations in the wilderness, he showed 
that he was, and felt himself to be, a free agent, 
as he had always been ; and free to act as he 
thought best, as are all the sons of God. He 
accepted the mission of his own free will, and his 
course of action was decided by himself. He 
claimed that his teachings fulfilled, or filled out 
and completed, the laws of Moses ; that what he 
taught was by revelation from God ; and on that 
ground he claimed from others faith in himself 
and belief in the truth and authority of the doc- 
trines he enunciated. 

For proof that he was the Son of God, the 
anointed, as expected by the Jews, he referred to 
the testimony of God, of John the Baptist, and 
especially to the miracles performed by him, as 
being of a nature carrying with them God's 
approval, as they could not be performed without 
his consent and aid. His knowledge of God, — of 
his being, relationship, and purposes, — he claimed 
to have received directly from God himself; and 
the power of miracle which he possessed and used, 
he constantly referred to God, that of himself he 
could do nothing. 

Having by his miracles established the fact that 
he was a son of God endowed with extraordinary 
powers, thereby becoming, by way of distinction, 
the Son of God, he proceeded to reveal the Deity, 



106 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

not as the household or personal God of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob ; nor as Jehovah, the tutelary God 
of the Hebrew nation ; but as our Father, the one 
and only God, Maker of the universe, and the 
Father of the whole human race, who he declared 
were brothers, sons of the one universal Father. 
He revealed the love of God for man, and promul- 
gated the law of love to God and man as the 
fulfilling of the law. He also taught of the resur- 
rection of the dead, and of a future life ; and in 
his death, resurrection, and ascension, gave proof 
of the truth of his teaching. 

Jesus took up the cry of John the Baptist, and 
proclaimed the kingdom of heaven to be at hand ; 
that is, the laws, the rule, or government, of God 
were at hand, about to be proclaimed and taught. 
The kingdom of heaven is a government, and 
those who would obtain eternal life must vow 
allegiance to that government, and obey its laws. 
These laws of the kingdom, Jesus, as the Christ, 
revealed; and the apostles journeyed into all 
lands, proclaiming this kingdom, promulgating 
the fact of eternal life, and teaching men how to 
obtain it. 

We will see what proof we have in the New 
Testament to support the claim that he was the 
Christ, the anointed Son of God, and that he was 
endowed with extraordinary power and knowledge 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZABETH. 107 

by God, for the purposes of his mission. In so 
doing we will cite both the statements of Jesus 
himself, and collateral evidence. 

" Jesus saith unto them. But whom say i/e that 
I am ? And Simon Peter answered and said, 
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 
And Jesus answered and said. Blessed art thou, 
Simon Bar-Jonah : for flesh and blood hath not 
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in 
heaven." (Mark viii. 29 ; and Luke ix. 20.) 

" Jesus heard that they had cast him out ; and 
when he had found him he said unto him, Dost 
thou believe on the Son of God? He answered 
and said. Who is he, Lord, that I may believe on 
him ? And Jesus said unto him. Thou hast both 
seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee." 
(John ix. 37.) 

" When Jesus heard that, he said. This sickness 
is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that 
the Son of God might be glorified thereby." 
(John xi. 4.) 

" Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. 
Then came the Jews round about him, and said h 
unto him. How long dost thou make us to doubt ? ^ 
If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus 
answered them, I told you, and ye believed not : 
the works that I do in my Father's name, they 
be^? witness of me." (John x. 23.) 



108 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

"If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not 
true : there is another that beareth witness of me, 
and I know that the witness which he witnesseth 
of me is true. Ye sent unto John, and he bare 
witness unto the truth. ... But I have greater 
witness than that of John : for the works which the 
Father hath given me to finish, the same works 
that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath 
sent me. And the Father himself, which hath sent 
me, hath borne witness of me." (John v. 31-33, 
36, 37.) 

" It is also written in your law, that the testi- 
mony of two men is true. I am one that bear 
witness of myself, and the Father that sent me 
beareth witness of me." (John viii. 17, 18.) 

" And John calling unto him two of his disci- 
ples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that 
should come? or look we for another? . . . Then 
Jesus answering said unto them. Go your way, 
and tell John what things ye have seen and 
heard ; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the 
lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are 
raised, to the poor the gospel is preached." 
(Luke vii. 19, 22.) 

" Say ye of him whom the Father hath sancti- 
fied, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest ; 
because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do 
not the works pf pay Father, believe me not. But 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH, 109 

if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the 
works." (John x. 36-38.) 

" Then said they all, Art thou the Son of God ? 
And he said unto them, Ye say that I am." 
(Luke xxii. 70.) 

"And the high priest said unto him, I ad- 
jure thee by the living God, that thou tell us 
whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. 
Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said." (Matt, 
xxvi. 64.) 

"As the Father gave me commandment, even 
so I do." (John xiv. 28.) 

" I have kept my Father's commandments, and 
abide in his love." (John xv. 10.) 

" I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater 
than I." (John xiv. 28.) 

" Therefore doth my Father love me, because 
I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of 
myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have 
power to take it again. This commandment [or 
this power] have I received of my Father." 
(John X. 17.) 

" I came forth from the Father, and am come 
into the world : again, I leave the world, and go to 
the Father." (John xvi. 28.) 

"Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have 
lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that 



110 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as 
my Father hath taught me, I speak these thmgs." 
(John viii. 28.) 

"Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall 
ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." 
(John xvi. 23.) 

"I came forth from the Father, and am come 
into the world." (John xvi. 28.) 

" All things are delivered unto me of my 
Father ; and no man knoweth the Son but the 
Father ; and neither knoweth any man the Father, 
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will 
reveal him." (Luke x. 22.) 

" The words I speak unto you, I speak not of 
myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, 
he doeth the works." (John xiv. 16.) 

"For I have not spoken of myself; but the 
Father which sent me, he gave me a command- 
ment, what I should say, and what I should 
speak." (John xii. 49.) 

" The word which ye hear is not mine, but the 
Father's which sent me." (John xiv. 24.) 

" For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath 
he given to the Son to have life in himself; and 
hath given him authority to execute judgment 
also, because he is the Son of man." (John v. 
26, 27.) 

" The Son can do nothing of himself, but what 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. Ill 

he seeth the Father do ; for what things soever 
he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." 
(John V. 19.) 

" For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and 
quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth 
whom he will : for the Father judgeth no man, but 
hath committed all judgment unto the Son ; that 
all men should honor the Son, even as they honor 
the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honor- 
eth not the Father which hath sent him." (John 
V. 21-23.) 

" The Father is in me, and I in him." (John 
X. 38.) 

"My Father is greater than I." (John xiv. 
28.) 

" All things that I have heard of my Father, I 
have made known unto you." (John xv. 15.) 

"I speak that which I have seen with my 
Father." (John viii. 38.) 

" If I do not the works of my Father, believe 
me not." (John x. 37.) 

"All things that the Father hath are mine." 
(John xvi. 15.) 

" Again I say unto you. That if two of you 
shall agree on earth as touching any thing that 
they shall ask, it shall be done for them of 
my Father which is in heaven." (Matt, xviii. 
19.) 



112 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

" And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that 
will I do ; that the Father may be glorified in the 
Son." (John xiv. 13.) 

" Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, 
and the life : no man cometh unto the Father, but 
by me." (John xiv. 6.) 

" I give unto them eternal life ; and they shall 
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them 
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me, 
is greater than all ; and no man is able to pluck 
them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father 
are one." (John x. 28-30.) 

" Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he 
that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven." (Matt. vii. 21.) 

"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before 
men, him will I confess also before my Father 
which is in heaven ; but whosoever shall deny me 
before men, him will I also deny before my Father 
which is in heaven." (Matt. x. 32, 33.) 

" At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank 
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, be- 
cause thou hast hid these things from the wise and 
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. 
Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy 
sight." (Matt. xi. 25.) 

" I judge no man ; and yet if I judge, my judg- 



TBE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZABETH. 113 

ment is true ; for I am not alone, but I and the 
Father that sent me." (John viii. 15.) 

"For the Father judgeth no man, but hath 
committed all judgment unto the Son." (John 
V. 22.) 

" Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth 
my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath 
everlasting life, and shall not come into condem- 
nation, but is passed from death to life. . . . The 
hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall 
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that 
hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in him- 
self, so hath he given to the Son to have life in 
himself, and hath given him authority to execute 
judgment also; because he is the Son of man.'* 
(John V. 24-27.) 

CORROBORATIVE TESTIMONY. 

The testimony of the Jews as recorded by 
John : — 

" The Jews answered and said. We have a law, 
and by our law he ought to die, because he made 
himself the Son of God." (John xix. 7.) 

Nathaniel's belief, as recorded by John ; — 

" Nathaniel answered and said unto him, Rabbi, 
thou art the Son of God." (John i. 49.) 

Simon Peter says in the name of the twelve 
disciples, " We believe and are sure that thou art 



114 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

that Christ, the Son of the living God." (John 
vi. 69.) 

Simon Peter's belief, as recorded by Matthew 
and John : — 

" Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God." 

The belief of the disciples, as recorded by 
John : — 

" We believe that thou camest forth from God." 
(John xvi. 30.) 

The belief of the people, as recorded by Mat- 
thew : — 

" Then they that were in the ship came and 
worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the 
Son of God." (Matt. xix. 13.) 

Testimony of the chief priests, as recorded by 
Matthew ; — 

"The chief priests, mocking him, said. He 
trusted in God. Let him deliver him now, if he 
will have him ; for he said, I am the Son of 
God." Matt, xxvii. 43.) 

Belief of the centurion, as recorded by Mat- 
thew, Mark, and Luke : — 

"And when the centurion, which stood over 
against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up 
the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of 
God." (Mark xv. 39.) 

The belief of Mark, as recorded by himself: — 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZABETH. 115 

" The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
the Son of God." (Mark i. 1.) 

The belief of Peter, in the record of his words 
in Acts : — 

" The God of our fathers hath glorified his Son 
Jesus." (Acts iii. 13.) 

" Unto you first, God having raised up his Son 
Jesus, sent him to bless you." (Acts iii. 26.) 

"Therefore let all the house of Israel know 
assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, 
whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." 
(Acts ii. 36.) 

Belief of John, as recorded in his writings : — 

"And we have seen, and do testify, that the 
Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the 
world." (John iv. 14.) 

" And this is his commandment. That we should 
believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ." 
(John iii. 23.) 

" In this was manifested the love of God towards 
us, because that God sent his only begotten Son 
into the world, that we might live through him." 
(1 John iv. 9.) 

"Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son 
of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." 
(1 John iv. 15.) 

" For God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 



116 ABTA8, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
(John iii. 16.) 

"But these are written that ye might believe 
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." (John 
XX. 31.) 

" Who is he that overcometh the world, but he 
that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" 
(1 John V. 5.) 

" Our fellowship is with the Father, and with 
his Son Jesus Christ." (1 John i. 3.) 

" Grace be with you, mercy and peace from God 
the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the 
Son of the Father in truth and love." (2 John 
i.3.) 

Belief of Paul, as recorded in his writings : — 

" Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an 
apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, concern- 
ing Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the 
seed of David according to the flesh, and declared 
to be the Son of God with power." (Rom. i. 1-4.) 

" God, who at sundry times and in divers man- 
ners spake in times past unto the fathers by the 
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us 
by his Son." (Heb. i. 1, 2.) 

"For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was 
preached among you by us." (2 Cor. i. 19.) 

" God sending his own Son in the likeness of 
sinful flesh." (Rom. viii. 3.) 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 117 

"I live by the faith of the Son of God, who 
loved me, and gave himself for me." (Gal. ii. 
20.) 

" He that spared not his own Son, but delivered 
him up for us all." (Rom. viii. 32.) 

" We give thanks to God and the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ." (Col. i. 3.) 

" But when the fulness of the time came, God 
sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under 
the law, that he might redeem them which were 
under the law, that we might receive the adoption 
of sons ; and because we are sons, God sent forth 
the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 
Abba, Father; so that thou art no longer a 
bondservant, but a son, and if a son, then an 
heir through God." (Gal. iv. 4-7.) ' 

soy OF MA2T. 

Jesus, prevented by the belief of the Jews fromf^^^^.^^, 
proclaiming that all mankind were children of 
God, endeavored to familiarize the thought by 
indiscriminately describing himself as Son of God 
and son of man. We find that in both positions 
he claims the same power, and declares that his 
power is by the gift of God. 

We have shown that Jesus of Nazareth was 
born at Bethlehem ; that he was a babe born of a 
woman like all other human beings, that as a child 



118 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

he was like other children, as a boy he was like 
other boys ; and that when he came to John to be 
baptized, he was a man like other men. 

John the Baptist did not know Jesus as the 
Messiah, until he was revealed to him by the 
descent of the Holy Spirit. He was a relative ; 
and from the intimacy of the mothers John had 
undoubtedly a personal acquaintance with him 
sufficient to give him a knowledge of the character 
of Jesus ; and this is shown in his reluctance to 
baptize a man with the baptism of repentance, 
whose character he knew to be blameless. "He 
would have hindered him ; " and he expresses this 
feeling, saying, "I have need to be baptized of 
thee, and comest thou to me ? " And it is only at 
the earnest persuasion of Jesus, that he does bap- 
tize him. 

We have no record showing that Jesus was 
different from other men in any way, until after 
his baptism ; and after that event he still claims 
the position of a son of man, and speaks of himself 
as follows : — 

" Who do men say that I the Son of man am ? " 
(Matt. xvi. 13.) 

"The Son of man hath not where to lay his 
head." (Matt. viii. 20.) 

" The Son of man hath power to forgive sin." 
(Matt. ix. 6.) 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 119 

"The Son of man came eating and drinking." 
(Matt. xi. 19.) 

" The Son of man is lord of the sabbath." (Matt, 
xii. 8.) 

"The Son of man must suffer many things." 
(Luke ix. 22.) 

" Every one who shall confess me before men, 
him shall the Son of man confess before the angels 
of God." (Luke xii. 8.) 

" Ye shall desire to see one of the days of the 
Son of man." (Luke xvii. 22.) 

" For the Son of man came to seek and to save 
that which was lost." (Luke xix. 10.) 

" It is written of the Son of man that he should 
suffer many things." (Mark ix. 12.) 

" The Son of man is delivered up into the hands 
of men." (Mark ix. 31.) 

" Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a 
kiss ? " (Luke xxvii. 48.) 

"Even the Son of man which is in heaven." 
(John iii. 13.) 

" So must the Son of man be lifted up." (John 
iii. 14.) 

" Because he is the Son of man." (John v. 27.) 

" Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up 
the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he." 
(John viii. 28.) 

"And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour 



120 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

is come that the Son of man should be glorified." 
(John xii. 23.) 

" Jesus saith, Now is the Son of man glorified." 
(John xiii. 31.) 

" When the Son of man should have arisen 
again from the dead." (Mark ix. 9.) 

"What then, if ye should behold the Son of 
man ascending where he was before." (John vi. 
62.) 

"The meat which abideth unto eternal lif6, 
which the Son of man shall give unto you." 
(John vi. 27.) 

"But when the Son of man shall come in his 
glory." (Matt. xxv. 31.) 

" Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me 
and my words in this adulterous and sinful gener- 
ation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed 
when he cometh in the glory of his Father with 
the holy angels." (Mark viii. 38.) 

"Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of 
man be risen again from the dead." (Matthew, 
Mark.) 

" For the Son of man shall come in the glory 
of his Father, with his angels." (Matt. xvi. 
27.) 

" Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting 
on the right hand of power, and coming in the 
clouds of heaven." (Mark xiv. 62.) 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZABETH. 121 

"In such an hour as ye think not, the Son of 
man cometh." (Matt. xxiv. 44.) 

" Watch therefore ; for ye know neither the day 
nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." 
(Matt. XXV. 13.) 

" But as the days of Noe, so shall also the com- 
ing of the Son of man be." (Matt. xxiv. 37.) 

" For as the lightning cometh out of the east, 
and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the 
coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. xxiv. 
27.) 

" The Son of man shall send forth his angels." 
(Matt. xiii. 41.) 

" When the Son of man shall come in his glory, 
and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit 
upon the throne of his glory." (Matt. xxv. 31.) 

" Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man 
in heaven ; and then shall all the tribes of the 
earth mourn ; and they shall see the Son of man 
coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and 
great glory ; and he shall send his angels with a 
great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather 
together his elect from the four winds, from one 
end of heaven to the other." (Mark, Luke.) 

"Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the 
angels of God ascending and descending upon 
the Son of man." (John i. 51.) 

Jesus, while claiming power beyond that of 



122 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

man, still emphasizes the fact that he is a man, 
partaking of the nature of all men ; that the 
extraordinary position given him by God does not 
alter the fact of his being a man, and tempted in 
all points as other men. His mother and brethren 
were known; his neighbors and townsmen say, 
" Whence hath this man this wisdom ? " (Matt, 
xiii. 54.) 

OTHER TESTIMONY. 

His disciples, and the Jews generally, believe 
him to be a man. 

" Howbeit we know this man, whence he is." 
(John vii. 27.) 

" Never man spake like this man." (John vii. 
46.) 

" The man that is called Jesus made clay, and 
anointed my eyes." (John ix. 11.) 

" The Jews cried out, If thou release this man." 
(John xix. 12.) 

The apostles speak of Jesus as a man. Peter, 
in his first address on the Day of Pentecost, 
says, — 

"Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God 
unto you by mighty works." (Acts ii. 22.) 

"Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, 
that through this man is proclaimed unto you 
remission of sins." (Acts xiii. 38.) 

" Stephen in his vision says, Behold, I see the 



TEE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 123 

heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on 
the right hand of God." (Acts vii. BQ.^ 

" It behooved him in all things to be made like 
unto his brethren ; for in that he hath suffered, 
being tempted, he is able to succor them that are 
tempted." (Heb. ii. 18.) 

" This man continueth ever." (Heb. vii. 24.) 

Paul writes, " For there is one God, and one 
mediator between God and man, the man Christ 
Jesus." 1 Tim. ii. 5.) 

Jesus of Nazareth, being a man like other men, 
was endowed with the Holy Spirit from God 
far beyond that of any other man previous or 
since, and became, by the act of God, his 
Anointed, his Messiah, his Christ. Moses, Joshua, 
Elijah, each had this power bestowed upon them. 
The prophets were enlightened as to future events; 
each received the Holy Spirit to a limited extent, 
sufficient for the position in which he was placed 
and the work he was called upon to do. Their 
power or enlightenment did not extend beyond 
the special object of their being; in all other 
respects they were men, showing the same individ- 
uality of character as other men. 

The Holy Spirit was poured out upon Jesus 
without measure. In the great work he was 
called upon to perform, he was still a free agent : 
he could adopt any plan of operation he desired. 



124 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

He has, in the slight glimpses he has given us of 
his temptations in the desert, shown some of the 
paths he might have taken ; and in his life and 
death we see the path which he deliberately chose, 
and which he quietly and firmly trod to the end, 
ever pressing onward, seeing the end from the 
beginning, yet steadily pursuing the course he 
had at that time chosen. We can see the intensity 
of his feeling, when, tempted by Peter in the same 
way in which he had been tempted in the desert, 
he says to him, " Get thee behind me, Satan." 
This power to work his own will, he retained even 
unto the end ; as shown by his remark in the gar- 
den of Gethsemane, " Thinkest thou that I cannot 
beseech my Father, and he shall even now send 
me more than twelve legions of angels ? " So, too, 
he claims it to be of his own free will, that he 
goes to his death : " Therefore doth the Father 
love me, because I lay down my life that I may 
take it again. No one taketh it away from me, 
but I lay it down of myself. I have power to 
lay it down, and I have power to take it again." 
This power, he says, he received from the Father. 
Great as it was, it falls far short of the creative 
and energizing power of God, of his omniscience, 
omnipotence, and omnipresence, — powers claimed 
for the Christ by believers in him as God. 

Jesus as a child, a youth, a young man, and a 



TBE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 125 

man of mature years, had lived a life of peculiar 
and great temptation, as we have endeavored to 
show in the previous chapters of this work ; and 
now as the Christ, the Messiah so long promised 
and desired, his temptations (providing he was 
a man, and not God, " for God cannot be tempted 
with evil ") were still greater. To sustain him 
under these extraordinary temptations, he held fre- 
quent communion with God. As his earthly end 
approached, he was enlightened more and more as 
to the result of his work, strengthened by a 
knowledge of its final acknowledgment through- 
out the world, and by visions of his own position 
and power in the kingdom of heaven which he 
had established upon earth. 

The attempts of evangelical Christians to deify 
Christ, have put him out of the plane of human 
existence. They have made him a God : and his 
human life, which was an example for man to 
follow, because he was a man, has been lost ; and 
his teachings, which were so plain and simple 
that the most ignorant might understand, have 
been hidden, or so changed and obscured by this 
halo of deification as to take a symbolical form ; 
and the great purposes of his life are lessened, 
and made of little value compared with the so- 
called work of redemption, which they declare 
was accomplished by the shedding of his blood 



126 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

as God upon the cross, — an act, which, if he was 
God, was a farce and a cheat, because God cannot 
put himself in the power of his creature man, and 
cannot die. 

The simple death of a human being has been 
tortured into the sacrifice of God, and Christ the 
Son of man has been robbed of his birthright, and 
cheated out of the lessons of his life as an example 
for man ; because, if he was God, he could not be 
tempted of evil, and could not therefore show 
unto man who is tempted the way to resist temp- 
tation, and overcome evil. 

This deifying of Christ has been and is a great 
hinderance and stumbling-block to mankind. It 
has caused the manufacture by man of an elabo- 
rate scheme of salvation not found in the Chris- 
tian Scriptures ; it has caused the promulgation of 
creeds and doctrines entirely opposed to those of 
Christ, and has placed him on a pinnacle unap- 
proachable by men, and made his life and example 
of no effect. 

Christ's prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, 
" Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from 
me ; nevertheless not my will, but thine be done. 
. . . And being in agony, he prayed more ear- 
nestly : and his sweat was as it were great drops of 
blood falling down to the ground " (Luke xxii. 42- 
44), is the prayer, not of a God, but of a man, not 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 127 

fearful of death, but feeling strongly the ignominy, 
disgrace, and suffering connected therewith, desir- 
ing to be released from the ordeal, and praying to 
one who he knows has the power to remove the 
cup if he will. It is the agony of a man conscious 
of what he is about to undergo, and nervously 
shrinking from it, but who will, when the time 
comes, meet his fate calmly and with resigna- 
tion. 

" My God ! My God ! Why hast thou forsaken 
me ? " is the cry of a man overcome by pain, for a 
moment losing his trust in God; the cry of one 
who would not use the power given him, to lessen 
his sufferings in the least, but leaving all in the 
hands of God. 

" Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," 
is the prayer of a loving, trusting human being, to 
his Father and his God ; not the cry of one God 
to another, or of God to himself. 

TRE CHBISrS MIRACLES. 

Miracles exhibit a power beyond or overruling 
the laws of nature : they are exhibitions of the 
spiritual force, energy, or enlightening powers of 
God, which have been given to a limited extent 
by the Deity into the hands of man, that he may 
work out God's purposes. 

We see this power used by Moses to free the 



128 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Israelites from bondage, and to keep control over 
the ignorant hordes of slaves set free ; by Joshua, 
to conquer a country for the new nation ; by 
occasional prophets, to keep alive the knowledge 
and worship of Jehovah. In all these cases, the 
power given was limited to the special purpose for 
which it was bestowed. 

The Christ received this power without limit. 
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in 
earth," he says. That he could use it for his own 
personal benefit, or for that of his friends, is 
shown in the miracle at Cana in Galilee, and in 
his statement that if he wished he could have 
"twelve legions of angels" to protect or defend 
him. The immense power he used only to ad- 
vance the purpose of his mission. He bestowed 
the power on his disciples ; sending forth seventy 
at one time, who, on their return, testified to the 
efficacy of the power. The same power or influ- 
ence was given to the apostles, including Barnabas 
and Paul. 

As the Christ is our exemplar, the perfect man, 
whom we are to follow in all things, there is 
reason to believe that this supernatural power of 
the spirit, which was so freely given to him and 
his disciples, may be again given to man when he 
is ready to receive and use it in the spirit of the 
Christ. 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 129 

The Jews believed that the Messiah would per- 
form miracles; and Jesus frequently referred to 
his works, as evidence of the truth of his claim 
to be the Messiah. 

The record of the Christ's miracles permeates 
the Gospels. Many of them have the testimony 
of two or more of the writers thereof, and they 
cannot be eliminated without destroying the 
whole work. The conversations and incidents 
connected with them are perfectly natural, and 
bear the impress of simplicity and truth. 

Besides these records of specific miracles, we 
have the testimony of the apostles and others, show- 
ing the profusion of these acts, and that they were 
generally known and acknowledged by the Jews. 

In answer to John the Baptist's inquiry sent 
through two of his disciples, " Art thou he that 
should come, or do we look for another ? " Jesus 
answered and said unto them, " Go and show John 
again those things which ye do hear and see : the 
blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the 
lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead 
are raised up, and the poor have the gospel 
preached unto them." (Matt. xi. 4, 5.) 

"But I have greater witness than that of John ; 
for the works which the Father hath given me to 
finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of 
me, that the Father hath sent me." (John v. 36.) 



130 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

" Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye be- 
lieved not: the works that I do in my Father's 
name, they bear witness of me." (John x. 25.) 

Jesus applies to himself the Messianic prophecy 
of Isaiah, " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me ; be- 
cause he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to 
the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken- 
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and 
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty 
them that are bruised." (Luke iv. 18.) 

The answer of Jesus to the centurion's request 
that he would heal his servant is, "I will come 
and heal him." (Matt. viii. 7.) 

To the nobleman, who besought him to come 
down and heal his son, he says, " Go thy way : thy 
son liveth." (John iv. 50.) 

Matthew testifies : — 

"And great multitudes followed him, and he 
healed them all." (Matt. xii. 15.) 

" John [the Baptist] heard in prison the works 
of Christ." (Matt. xi. 2.) 

" And his fame went throughout all Syria : and 
they brought unto him all sick people that were 
taken with divers diseases and torments, and 
those which were possessed with devils, and those 
which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy ; 
and he healed them." (Matt. iv. 24.) 

" And Jesus went forth, and saw a great 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETB. 131 

multitude, and was moved with compassion to- 
ward them, and he healed their sick." (Matt, 
xiv. 14.) 

"And great multitudes followed him, and he 
healed them all." (Matt. xii. 15.) 

Luke testifies : — 

"And it came to pass on a certain day, as he 
was teaching, that there were Pharisees and 
doctors of the law sitting by, which were come 
out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and 
Jerusalem ; and the power of the Lord was pres- 
ent to heal them." (Luke v. 17.) 

" And in the same hour he cured many of their 
infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits : and 
unto many that were blind he gave sight." (Luke 
vii. 21.) 

John testifies very fully : — 

" Now when he [Jesus] was in Jerusalem, at the 
passover, in the feast day, many believed in his 
name, when they saw the miracles which he did." 
(John ii. 23.) 

" And a great multitude followed him, because 
they saw his miracles which he did on them that 
were diseased." (John vi. 2.) 

Nicodemus testifies, " Rabbi, we know that thou 
art a teacher come from God : for no man can do 
these miracles that thou doest, except Qod be 
with him." (John iii. 2.) 



132 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

" Many of the people believed on him, and said, 
When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles 
than these which this man hath done ? " (John 
vii. 31.) 

" The Pharisees said, This man is not of God, 
because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others 
said. How can a man that is a sinner do such 
miracles?" (John ix. 16.) 

" Then gathered the chief priests and the Phar- 
isees a council, and said. What do we? for this 
man doeth many miracles." (John xi. 47.) 

Peter addresses the Jews as knowing of the 
miracles : he says, " Ye men of Israel, hear these 
words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God 
among you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which 
God did by him in the midst of you, as ye your- 
selves know." (Acts ii. 22.) 

Paul, also, in his address to the Hebrews, says, 
" How shall we escape, if we neglect so great sal- 
vation ? which at the first began to be spoken by 
the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them 
that heard him ; God also bearing them witness 
both with signs and wonders, and with diverse 
miracles." (Heb. ii. 34.) 

Luke testifies of the Roman centurion who said, 
" I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under 
my roof; but speak the word only, and my ser- 
vant shall be healed." (Matt. viii. 8; Luke vii. 
10.) 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 133 

John says of the nobleman whose son was sick 
at Capernaum, "Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way, 
thy son liveth. ... So the father knew that it 
was the same hour in the which Jesus said unto 
him, Thy son liveth ; and himself believed, and 
his whole house." (John iv. 53.) 

PRE-EXIS TENCE. 

As we obtain larger and larger glimpses of 
creation, of the innumerable worlds existing, and 
of others in process of formation, and consider the 
smallness and insignificance of this earth as com- 
pared with other worlds of our own solar system, 
and that with countless other systems beyond, we 
feel that God has been working for millions upon 
millions of years, and that this earth is not the 
first, but among the latest, of his creations. We 
know that God does not work without an object, 
and we are certain that for these countless mil- 
lions of ages before this earth was, the shining orbs 
above and around us have not been created with- 
out their use ; and is it not probable that they are 
the abodes of intelligent beings, — beings who per- 
haps have been in existence for millions of years 
before this earth was created ? 

Of these things we know nothing, but our rea- 
son shows the probability of such a state of being. 
We know not but we may ourselves have lived in 



134 AEYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

such a previous state of existence. The body shuts 
our sight to things past, and to things beyond. We 
may in some future state of existence be able to 
say with Christ, " I came from God ; for neither 
have I come of myself, but he sent me." 

We know nothing of any previous state of exist- 
ence ; neither did Christ, until enlightened by the 
Holy Spirit, even then not when he first received 
the blessing. If we can judge any thing by the 
records, he was gradually instructed, at first, with 
respect to his mission as the Messiah ; his frequent 
communions with God not only strengthened him 
in the path he had chosen, but he was enlightened 
not only as to the position he would take as God's 
well-beloved Son in the kingdom of heaven, but, as 
we see, it also brought to him the knowledge of 
his pre-existence. 

No one can tell when man, the spiritual being, 
enters and takes possession of the human body. 
Neither can we tell whence he comes, except from 
the one great source, God ; whether this earth is 
his place of birth, or whether he has existed in 
other times and in other worlds. But as Christ 
existed before this world was, we may believe that 
some or all of us have had a pre-existence ; but, 
pre-existent or not, we know that we are sons of 
God, even as Christ is Son of God, and that he is 
an example of what we may become. 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZABETR, 185 

Christ earnestly and repeatedly states that all 
his power is given unto him, that " The Son can 
do nothing of himself." " My teaching is not 
mine, but his that sent me." " He that sent me 
is true ; and the things which I heard from him, 
these speak I unto you." How shall we reconcile 
these statements with other sayings, such as, " I 
and my Father are one ; " " He that seeth me, 
seeth him that sent me ; " " Believe me that I am 
in the Father, and the Father in me " ? 

The Christ claimed to be the sent of God, his 
anointed representative and agent. 

The kingdoms and governments of this earth in 
times of exigency send ambassadors, called minis- 
ters plenipotentiary, to each other's courts, clothed 
with the power and authority of their govern- 
ments. The United States, for instance, sends a 
minister plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James. 
He appears in Great Britain clothed in the power, 
the authority, the sovereignty, of the United States ; 
he is the United States manifest in the flesh. As 
an official, his acts are the acts of the United 
States, his words are the words of the United 
States, his promises and threats are the promises 
and threats of the United States. He that hears 
him hears the United States, and he that sees him 
sees the United States. 

In the same way the Christ was the ambassador, 



136 ART AS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

the minister plenipotentiary, sent by God, the 
Sovereign of the universe, to man, the ruler of 
the earth ; he appears officially as representing the 
Deity ; he comes clothed in the power, authority, 
and sovereignty of God ; he is God made manifest 
in the flesh ; his acts are the acts of God, his words 
are the words of God ; his promises and his threats 
are the promises and threats of God ; he that hears 
him hears God, and he that sees him sees God. If 
he tells us God is our Father, we know it, we have 
got beyond belief, we are sure it is so ; if he says 
there is a kingdom of heaven, and an eternal life, 
we know it is true. If he shows us the way, and 
points out the path, we know it to be the true 
way and the right path, because the voice of God 
has spoken it. 

As we have said, the great mission of the Christ 
was to bring life and immortality to light, and 
to reveal the being and purposes of God. Who 
would believe the teachings of an unenlightened 
man on these subjects? Who could reveal the 
thoughts, wishes, desires, purposes, of God, except 
one who had been with God, or who had received 
divine illumination ? The revelations of Jehovah 
to Moses were made amid the thunder, fire, and 
smoke of Sinai, in the full sight of the people ; but 
no visible revelation was made to Christ that he 
should promulgate. We find the Christ claiming 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 137 

pre-existence, that he was taught by God, that he 
came from God, and that he was sent to accom- 
plish a certain work ; that he came not of himself, 
but that God sent him. 

" For I am come down from heaven, not to do 
mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." 
(John vi. 38.) 

"I came forth and am come from God; for 
neither have I come of myself, but he sent me." 
(John viii. 42.) 

" I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." 
(Matt. ix. 13.) 

" Think not that I came to send peace on the 
earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword." 
(Matt. X. 34.) 

" For the Son of man is come to seek and to 
save that which was lost." (Luke xix. 10.) 

" He that cometh from heaven is above all. 
What he hath seen and heard, of that he beareth 
witness." 

"I know whence I came, and whither I go." 
(John viii. 14.) 

"I am not alone, but I and the Father that 
sent me." (John viii. 16.) 

" Ye are of this world. I am not of this world." 
(John viii. 23.) 

" He that sent me is true ; and the things which 
I heard from him, these speak I unto you." 
(John viii. 26.) 



138 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

"I do nothing of myself; but as the Father 
taught me, I speak of these things ; and he that 
sent me is with me." (John viii. 29.) 

" I speak the things which I have seen with my 
Father." (John vii. 38.) 

" Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abra- 
ham was, I am." (John viii. 58.) 

" Say ye of him whom the Father sanctified and 
sent into the world, Thou blasphemest " ? (John 
X. 36.) 

" And now, O Father, glorify thou me with 
thine own self, with the glory which I had with 
thee before the world was." (John xvii. 5-8.) 

" For thou lovedst me before the foundations 
of the world." (John xvii. 24.) 

" I came forth from the Father, and am come 
into the world. Again, I leave the world, and 
go to the Father." (John xvi. 28.) 

" Jesus saith unto them, I proceeded forth and 
came from God." (John.) 

Apparently Jesus was a frequent visitor to Jeru- 
salem. At these times he probably remained at 
the house of his disciple John. Here he came in 
contact with the priests of the temple and the 
learned men of Jerusalem, with whom he held 
the conversations detailed by John. 

In many of these conversations it is evident 
that he spoke directly to their belief that the 



THE CLAIM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. 139 

Messiah must be the Son of Jehovah, and wield 
his power. He boldly avowed that he was the 
Son of God; that he came from him, and had 
been taught by him ; that whatever he had seen 
his Father do, that could he do ; that he was en- 
dowed with the power and authority of Jehovah ; 
and he referred to his doctrines, his revelations, 
and his miracles, as evidence of the truth of his 
claims. 



140 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 



V. 

THE FmST AND SECOND EEYELATIONS COMPARED. 

We have claimed that the revelations made 
through the Christ were in all essential features 
the same as those given to the Aryas. In this 
chapter we propose to examine and compare the 
teachings of the Christ with the religious belief of 
the Aryas as shown in the allegory. 

Olfi: GOD. 

The revelation made to the Aryas commences 
with the grand declaration, that, "in the begin- 
ning Grod created the heaven and the earth." 
This is followed by the continued and reiterated 
statement that creation in all its separate parts 
was the work of his hands ; and after the work is 
completed, and every thing pronounced finished 
in accordance with the intent and purpose of the 
Deity, — the earth filled with the flora, fauna, and 
man suitable to its various parts, — the writer en- 
ters into particulars. As if by re-iteration to make 
certainty doubly sure, he repeats, " The Lord God 



THE REVELATIONS COMPARED. 141 

made the earth and the heavens," and further says, 
" He made every plant of the field before it was in 
the earth, and every herb of the field before it 
grew;" that "out of the ground the Lord God 
formed every beast of the field and every fowl of 
the air," and that " the Lord God formed man 
of the dust of the ground," also, — thus showing 
the special and individual formation and creation 
by God of every living thing. 

These statements formed a part of the Jewish 
scriptures, and were believed by them : conse- 
quently the Christ passes over this subject without 
comment, taking their belief in it for granted, 
emphasizing its teachings on one point only, in his 
quotation from the Hebrew Scriptures, " Hear, O 
Israel : the Lord thy God is one Lord." 

The Hebrews believed in and had worshipped 
many gods. Their faith in the gods of Egypt in 
the time of Moses had been so strong, that only 
the most stupendous miracles — by which the 
power of these gods had been set at naught, and 
the superior power of Jehovah shown — had given 
them confidence to act under the guidance of 
Moses, and take the necessary steps for their de- 
liverance. This belief in and worship of other 
gods is shown throughout their history. They 
bowed down to the golden calf in Sinai, and to 
the many gods of the Canaanites. Elijah at one 



142 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

time supposed that he was the sole worshipper of 
Jehovah ; and, when reproved, the claim is made 
for only " seven thousand in Israel which have not 
bowed to Baal," out of its many millions of 
inhabitants. 

Many times and oft they departed from the 
worship of Jehovah, and offered sacrifice to Baal, 
Ashtoreth, Molech, Chemosh, and other gods of 
Moab, Ammon, Syria, Zidon, and Babylonia. 
They offered their children in sacrifice on the altar 
to Molech. " Yea, they sacrificed their sons and 
their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent 
blood, even the blood of their sons and of their 
daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of 
Canaan ; and the land was polluted with blood." 
..." Wherefore my fury and mine anger was 
poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of 
Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they 
are wasted and desolate, saith the Lord." " All 
nations shall say. Wherefore hath the Lord done 
this unto this land? What meaneth the heat of 
this great anger ? Then men shall say. Because 
they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God 
of their fathers, which he made with them when 
he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt. 
For they went and served other gods, and wor- 
shipped them, gods whom they knew not, and 
whom he had not given unto them ; and the auger 



THE REVELATIONS COMPARED. 143 

of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring 
upon it all the curses that are written in this 
book." 

The Jews at the time of Christ still believed in 
other gods, in the gods of other nations, as did all 
mankind ; but they had learned a lesson in adver- 
sity, and they worshipped Jehovah only. The 
constant fulfilment of the covenant or contract 
made by their fathers, the blessings bestowed upon 
their nation when they worshipped him, and the 
cursings or punishments received when they de- 
parted from him, had been so fully shown in their 
history as prepared (by Nehemiah) for that pur- 
pose, that, since their return from captivity, they 
had been kept in full allegiance to Jehovah. As(^ 
by contact with other nations they had become u^ 
more enlightened, their service had become more v- 
elaborate in its forms and ceremonies, and its out- ^-^ 
ward observances were more minute and formal, ^ 
while the thought they represented had been "^ 
hidden or lost. 

The Aryas had believed in a spiritual power, or 
in spiritual laws beyond, above, and controlling 
the natural laws, or laws of nature, which spirit- 
ual power was placed in the hands of men when 
they had arrived at their highest spiritual position. 

This same power over nature, called in the 
Hebrew Scriptures the "spirit of God," and, when 



144 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

God is represented as speaking, " my spirit," and 
represented as the power, energy, will, and enlight- 
ening influence of the Deity, was given in a 
restricted degree to Moses, to Joshua, and the 
prophets, that they might carry out the purposes 
of God. 

In the Christian Scriptures it is called the 
"Holy Ghost," the "Holy Spirit;" it is poured 
out, it is given, it comes unannounced, it comes 
from God. Elisabeth, Zacharias, John, were filled 
with the Holy Ghost; it descends on Jesus of 
Nazareth in the form of a dove, on the apostles 
in tongues of flame ; it is bestowed by the Christ, 
and b}^ the apostles, by man on man. In all these 
cases it is a spiritual influence, enlightenment, and 
power, bestowed on man. 

Neither the Hebrews of old, nor the Jews of 
the time of the Christ, ever believed in it as a per- 
i son or as a God. Nowhere does the Christ speak 
^ of the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, as a being to 
) be worshipped, or as one part or person of a God- 
head : it is always as an influence or power coming 
^ from and bestowed by God. 

The first commandment promulgated through 
Moses is, "I am the Lord thy God, which have 
brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the 
house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods 
before me." In all the Hebrew Scriptures, when 



TRE BEVEL ATIONS COMPABED. 145 

the Deity is represented as speaking of himself, 
and when he is spoken of, there is no instance 
where more than one God is mentioned. 

In the Christian Scriptures, the Christ always 
speaks of God as one. He never mentions the 
Holy Ghost as God, and never speaks of himself 
but as the Son of man or Son of God; and the 
idea of a plurality of gods, or a triple Godhead, 
cannot be found in any of his words. God alone is 
the author and sustainer of all. His sayings are still 
more forcible when referring to the Father, whom 
he constantly mentions as the author of all power. 

In illustration of our position, we will transcribe 
a few of the many sayings of Christ, and of the 
teachings of the apostles : — 

" And this is life eternal, that they should know 
thee, the only true God." 

"With God all things are possible." (Matt. 
xix. 26.) 

"God is not the God of the dead, but of the 
living." (Matt. xxii. 32.) 

"That they might know thee the only true 
God." (John xvii. 3.) 

"There is none good but one, that is God." 
(Matt. xix. 17.) 

" Not that any man hath seen the Father, save 
he which is from God." (John vi. 46.) 

"If any man willeth to do his will, he shall 



146 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

know of the teaching, whether it be of God." 
(John vii. 17.) 

" He that is of God heareth the words of God." 
(John viii. 47.) 

" And the high priest said unto him, I adjure 
thee by the living God." (Matt. xxvi. 63.) 

These are sufficient to show Christ's belief, as 
well as that of the Jews generally. 

The apostles were to preach the doctrines of 
Christ throughout the world, and examination 
shows an unanimity of teaching in this respect; 
they refer every thing to God, as did Christ, and 
but one God is known to or taught by them. All 
the apostles speak of God as the power through 
whom Christ performed his miracles, and who 
raised him from the dead. Peter says, — 

"The God of our fathers hath glorified his 
servant Jesus." (Acts iii. 13.) 

" Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God 
unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs, 
which God did by him in the midst of you." 
(Acts ii. 22.) 

" This Jesus did God raise up." (Acts ii. 32.) 

The writings of Paul are full of expressions of 
belief in one God : — 

" To us there is one God." (1 Cor. viii. 6.) 

" One God and Father of all." (Eph. iv. 6.) 

" God which raiseth the dead." (2 Cor. i. 9.) 



THE BEVEL ATIONS COMPAEED. 147 

" God, that hath made the world, and all things 
therein." (Acts xvii. 24.) 

" Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, 
do all to the glory of God." (1 Cor. x. 31.) 

" That your faith should not stand in the wis- 
dom of men, but in the power of God." (1 Cor. 
ii. 5.) 

" Now he that establisheth us with you in Christ, 
and anointed us, is God." (2 Cor. i. 21.) 

"But all things are of God." (1 Cor. xi. 

12.) 

" Ye are come unto the city of the living God." 
(Heb. xii. 22.) 

"And every tongue shall confess to God." 
(Rom. xiv. 11.) 

" For our God is a consuming fire." (Heb. xii. 
29.) 

"He that built all things is God." (Heb. 
iii. 4.) 

"But God is one." (Gal. iii. 20.) 

"There is none other God but one." (1 Cor. 
viii. 4.) 

"Then cometh the end, when he shall deliver 
up the kingdom to God." (1 Cor. xv. 24.) 

" But to us there is but one God, the Father, of 
whom are all things." (1 Cor. viii 6.) 

These are a few of the expressions of the apostles. 
They invariably speak of God as one; there is no 



148 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

division or multiplication of being ; all their writ- 
ings show that they believed in the declaration of 
Moses adopted and indorsed by Christ : " Hear, 
O Israel : the Lord thy God is one Lord." 

TffJS LOVE OF GOD. 

The great evangel has by the providence of 
God been safely kept until man has reached that 
point of spiritual intelligence which enables him 
to grasp and receive the full revelation as deliv- 
ered originally to the Aryas, supplemented and 
made complete in the doctrine of the love of 
God for his human children, as taught by Jesus 
the Christ. 

This love is also taught in the original revelation. 
The principal object in the creation of the world 
was the comfort, pleasure, and happiness of man. 

As the mother prepares the dainty dresses for 
her child, or the father provides toys and play- 
things to give pleasure to his son; as both to- 
gether labor and strive to prepare him for the 
situation in life they hope he will fill, so the Deity, 
with infinite love, filled the earth with blessings 
for the enjoyment of his children. The beauty 
of the sky and clouds, of the flowers, fields, and 
forests ; the majesty of the mountains and seas ; 
the herds of animals for his use ; the countless 
fruits to please his taste ; the whole boundless 



THE REVELATIONS COMPARED, 149 

universe in all its sublimity and loveliness, — all 
speak of the love of an affectionate Father/' v 'tMC' 

God is love. He cannot be worshipped in fear; 
for worship is love and trust expressed in action, 
and perfect love casteth out fear. Heaven is love, 
and love is the key of entrance thereto. Love is 
its language, and the breath of its being; and 
none but those who love God and their fellow- 
man can enter therein. Love is the joy of heaven, 
the happiness of earth, the atmosphere in which 
we live and move and have our being. Creation 
is love embodied in acts. This earth is filled with 
the evidences of the Creator's love for his chil- 
dren. Every thing was created for their conven- 
ience and happiness. Every imagination of the 
heart of man was to be satisfied. 

This earth is God's great kindergarten; his 
infant-school, filled with object-lessons, teaching of 
his great and constant love for his children, and 
of his solicitude for their welfare and happiness. 

It has been asked. Why did God cause his chil- 
dren, the objects of this great love, to be born on 
the earth ? Would it not have been much better 
for them to have been born in heaven, where their 
innocence would be unsullied by sin, where there 
was no temptation to wrong? Why did God 
place them in the midst of sin and want and 
crime and misery? 



150 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Love is again the answer. Where, otherwise, 
would be the love of parents for their children, 
of children for their parents, of brother and 
sister, of youth and maiden, of husband and 
wife, and of man for man ? God sought to give 
to man some of the happiness he himself en- 
joyed. 

Love created temptation, that through the over- 
coming of temptation man might obtain virtue. 
Virtue is personified in the Christ ; innocence, in 
the child in his arms. The one has experienced 
temptation, trial, suffering, and in the conflict has 
become a higher, stronger, fuller, more complete 
man, his spiritual faculties alive, awake, and 
earnest ; the other is placid, calm, without power 
or force of character, simply existing. 

God has placed us here to try our spiritual 
strength, with the result that he who overcomes 
becomes indeed a glorious son of God. 

This world is no place of probation : it is a 
place of growth; a place in which to learn of 
God, of his love and care, and of his requirements ; 
a place in which to study the manners, customs, 
habits, and language of heaven ; to put in prac- 
tice that love for God and man which is in its 
atmosphere, and controls its being. 

God does not create sin. He did create the 
animal instincts, which he pronounced good for 



TBE REVELATIONS COMPARED. 151 

the animal man : but when man's intellect had 
advanced so far as to obtain a knowledge of God 
and of his laws and requirements, the instincts 
ceased to be a guide to man ; the laws of God 
overruled and controlled them, and placed them 
in subjection. These instincts then became tempt- 
ers, and urged man to submit to their control. 
If man succumbs to their temptations, he reduces 
himself to the position of the animal, and partakes 
of their nature to the extent of his fall. If he 
resists and overcomes the temptations, he is spir- 
itually advanced to the extent of the power of 
the temptation, and the determination and force 
requisite to overcome it. 

Man is tempted to sin, not by God, but by the 
instincts of his animal nature. In overcoming 
these temptations to wrong-doing, his highest 
spiritual powers are brought into active exertion ; 
by this means they are strengthened and enlarged. 
Besides this, all the best impulses of our being 
are excited by our surroundings. Love for the 
sinner brings out our self-sacrifice, disinterested- 
ness, generosity, charity, devotedness, unselfish- 
ness, manliness ; while the sinner may learn 
repentance and humility, and the suffering learn 
patience, fortitude, gratitude, love. All the vir- 
tues are brought out by contact with temptation, 
poverty, sickness, sin, and crime, — virtues which 



152 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

do not belong to, and cannot be called into being 
by, innocence. 

Temptation is a God-sent boon to man ; given 
him in love, to make him a firmer, stronger, and 
more powerful spiritual being. 

There is no hell except in the heart of the 
wicked, and God has created no devil to torment 
his children. He who in fear of the devil hastens 
to save his life, will lose it ; because the action is 
selfish, and the selfish man cannot enter heaven. 

Here man commences his eternal existence, lays 
the foundation of love to God and love to man, 
and of knowledge in intellectual and spiritual 
things, which shall be of advantage to him in the 
life beyond. Here he weakens or strengthens his 
character by contact with temptation ; and, as he 
overcomes, approaches nearer and nearer to him 
who is our exemplar, the perfect man; to him who 
received the expressed approbation of God, in the 
words, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased : hear ye him." 

God has placed man on this earth in situations 
to bring out all his intellectual and spiritual 
powers ; all the wisdom which he obtains here will 
help him in the world beyond. 

Man is entitled to his whole life here, his three- 
score years and ten. It is for his good, his spirit- 
ual welfare, that he should fill out his term. 



THE BEVELATIONS COMPARED. 163 

Every one whose life is shortened by sin, disease, 
or accident, is deprived of just so much of necessary 
development ; and it is the duty of every one to 
care for this life as not abusing it, and to seize 
every opportunity for intellectual and spiritual 
advance, while he especially cultivates in his heart 
love to God and love to man, and uses the powers 
and blessings God has given him for the benefit of 
his brothers and sisters in God. 

Every child who dies is by that means deprived 
of that spiritual energy developed by contact 
with and resistance of temptation, which gives 
strength of character and determination of pur- 
pose. He may be comparatively innocent, but 
that does not compensate for the loss or want of 
virtue. He loses also his intellectual and spiritual 
initiation, and, above all, the opportunity to culti- 
vate his love to God by doing good to his fellow- 
man. 

In the difference between virtue and innocence, 
as depicted above, we can see one reason why God 
placed man on this earth subject to temptation 
and trial. Man is born an innocent being, subject 
to the laws of his being as an animal. He 
becomes an intellectual, and finally a spiritual, 
being. Each of these steps in advance brings cor- 
responding duties, and subjects him to the new 
laws of his advance. As the intellectual posi- 



154 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

tion of a Bacon or a Newton, the spirituality of 
a St. John or a Channing, is more to be desired 
than the ignorance of the babe, so the virtue of a 
Christ, obtained by resisting temptation and over- 
coming evil, is more to be desired than the inno- 
cence of the same infant. 

THE KINGDOM OF REAVEir. 

In the allegory, the Aryas, previous to partak- 
ing of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, were 
governed by the law of man commonly called the 
moral law, the law of right and wrong, of mine 
and thine. This is the foundation of all govern- 
ments, and is found in all religious codes. But the 
law and requirements of God were unknown. 

The first movement toward a spiritual life is 
the recognition of the being of God, and a knowl- 
edge of his requirements. Under the symbol of 
partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowl- 
edge of good and evil, the Aryas, it is recorded, 
obtained this higher, this spiritual, knowledge. 

The Christ's first cry was, "The kingdom of 
heaven is at hand." His second was, " Now the 
kingdom of God is preached unto you." 

The knowledge of good and evil revealed to the 
Aryas the tree of life ; and through their knowl- 
edge of the laws and requirements of the Deity, 
they learned how they might obtain eternal life. 



THE BEVELATIONS COMPARED. 155 

So the Christ revealed to man the being of God, 
his laws and requirements, and showed unto them 
eternal life, and the way whereby it may be 
obtained. 

The Aryas were governed by their laws of right 
and wrong, and were innocent of evil until they 
obtained the knowledge of good and evil ; so the 
Christ says to the Jews, You were governed by 
and judged by the laws of Moses until John, you 
knew no higher law ; since which time the king- 
dom of heaven is preached unto you. The being, 
law, and government of God are now taught you, 
and from this time you will be governed and judged 
by these laws. As was the case in the allegory, 
the laws of the kingdom of heaven go beyond the 
knowledge of right and wrong as between man 
and man, and reach the springs of action in the 
heart. 

The kingdom of heaven is within you, says the 
Christ, your rule of life and spring of action ; its 
laws are laws of righteousness or right doing ; they 
lead to the carrying-out, the doing, of the will of 
God, as expressed in the universal law of love 
and shown in the life of Christ. 

"Seek je first the kingdom of heaven," is the 
Christ's call. He likens this knowledge to a pearl 
of great price, whose value is beyond riches ; to 
a treasure hid in the field, for which a man will 



156 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

give all that lie hath. Its influence on the man 
who obeys the laws of the kingdom is like leaven ; 
it changes and sweetens his whole character, and 
he becomes a new man. As the grain of mustard- 
seed in the soil, so he grows in all goodness until 
the birds of the air rest in its branches ; that is, 
all who need come to him for aid and comfort. 

All are called, but many seek to come without 
obeying the laws of the kingdom ; like the tares 
in the wheat, in the day of trial they fail and are 
cast out. He who came to the wedding-feast 
without the proper garment, that is, without 
proper preparation ; and the foolish virgins who 
allowed their lamps to go out, that is, did not con- 
tinue in the right, — are expelled and shut out of 
the kingdom. All must work in God's vineyard, 
each according to his talents and opportunities ; 
those wlio do not will be thrust out of the king- 
dom. The earnest worker, whether for one hour 
or twelve, will receive the " Well done, good and 
faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy 
Lord." 

Christ proclaimed the kingdom of heaven, and 
immediately published the laws of that kingdom. 
These laws were to govern the actions of men 
upon the earth. Those who do the will of God 
as therein required are the children of the king- 
dom. They have already become members of the 



THE REVELATIONS COMPARED. 157 

kingdom by subjecting themselves to its laws, and 
obeying the will of its ruler, God. 

Something more than mere intellectual belief 
in this doctrine is required. Only those who do 
the will of God as expressed in those laws will be 
received into the kingdom. Heaven is a state of 
existence, both here and hereafter. No one enters 
who does not strongly desire and earnestly strive 
for it. 

Heaven being a state of existence, commenced 
on this earth but continuing beyond, the entrance 
to which is obtained here ; let us study carefully 
the conditions of entrance as given us by the 
Christ, the only being authorized by God to teach 
us. He says, — 

" Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he 
that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven." (Matt. vii. 21.) 

It is not necessary that we should know that 
such a being as the Christ ever existed, to enter 
into heaven. Doing the will of God gives us the 
entrance thereto. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
had no knowledge of the Christ: yet they were 
admitted into heaven, because they lived up to 
the light which they had received, poor and crude 
as was their knowledge of God, and reprehensible 
as were many of their actions, judged in the light 



158 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

of Christianity. They were models for their 
time, and received their reward. 

The Christ enunciates as the sum and sub- 
stance of the requirements of God : " Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with 
all thy strength." 

" With all thy heart," that is, with all the affec- 
tions ; " with all thy soul," is all thy religious and 
emotional nature ; " with all thy mind," that is, 
with all the brightness and vigor of thine intel- 
lect ; and " with all thy strength," is with all the 
power and force of thy nature. Not a passive 
love, but an active, energetic, aggressive, and 
glowing love, showing itself in all your life and 
actions, and causing you to use all the powers he 
has given you in his service. To this he adds, 
" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." And 
his comment upon them is, " There is none other 
commandment greater than these." 

In these commandments, known to the Jews, 
but until then unnoticed, the Christ proclaimed in 
a condensed form the laws governing the kingdom 
of God. Love, and love alone, is the key which 
unlocks the gates of heaven. 

"Among them that are born of woman, there 
hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist : 
yet he that is but little in the kingdom of heaven 



THE BEVEL ATIONS COMPARED. 159 

is greater than he." (Matt. xi. 11.) Although 
he prophesied that it was at hand, he knew not 
what it was. 

" The law and the prophets were until John. 
From that time the gospel of the kingdom of 
God is preached." (Luke xvi. 16.) 

" The kingdom of God cometh not with obser- 
vation ; neither shall they say, Lo, here ! or Lo, 
there ! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within 
you." (Luke xvii. 20, 21.) 

" Except ye be born anew, ye cannot see the 
kingdom of God." (John iii. 3.) 

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his 
righteousness." (Matt. vi. 3.) 

" Suffer the little children to come unto me, for 
of such is the kingdom of God." (Mark x. 16.) 

" Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom 
of God." (Mark vi. 20.) 

" There be some of them that stand here, which 
shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the 
kingdom of God." (Mark ix. 2T.) 

" How hardly shall they that have riches enter 
into the kingdom of God ! " (Mark x. 21.) 

" Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these 
commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be 
called l6ast in the kingdom of heaven ; but who- 
soever shall do and teach them, he shall be called 
great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. v. 19.) 



160 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

" And Philip preached the good tidings concern- 
ing the kingdom of God." (Acts viii. 12.) 

"That through many tribulations we must 
enter into the kingdom of God." (Acts xiv. 27.) 

"Be it known therefore unto you, that this 
salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles ; they 
will also hear." (Acts xxviii. 28.) 

"For the kingdom of God is not eating and 
drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in 
the Holy Ghost." (Rom. xiv. 17.) 

" For the kingdom of God is not in word, but 
in power." (1 Cor. iv. 21.) 

GOD OUB FATHER. 

The fatherhood of God and the sonship of man, 
which was emphatically declared by the Aryas, 
was also taught by the Christ, though not so fully 
as in the original revelation. The Christ was pre- 
vented by the spiritual ignorance of the Jews from 
proclaiming it broadly ; but in connection with 
himself, and his position as Son of God and Son 
of man, he continually asserts the same position 
for all mankind. This teaching was not received 
by the Jews pleasantly. They called it blas- 
phemy, and attempted to stone the Christ for its 
utterance. 

Even to this time it has been receiveH by Chris- 
tians only in a vague, uncertain sense. Acknowl- 



TBE BEVEL ATIONS COMPABED. 161 

edged by the intellect, it has not pierced the 
heart. 

Within a few years only has it been accepted 
by a few as an actual fact, and man realized that 
he is a son of God, partaking of his nature, — a 
brother of the Christ in both his divine and human 
nature. 

In our former volume we showed that man is 
an actual son of God, — that God, by a special 
act of his Spirit, becomes the father of every 
human being; that he selected the woman as his 
procreative agent, through whom his spiritual 
children are brought into being. 

The fatherhood of God and the sonship of man, 
as declared by Christ, was a doctrine not only en- 
tirely new to the Jews, but to all mankind. The 
Jews were proud of their descent from Abraham; 
but to claim to be a son of Jehovah was in their 
eyes sacrilege, and in the case of Christ they 
resented it by death. 

" Our Father who art in heaven," is the decla- 
ration of Christ; not his Father alone, but our 
Father, the Father of all mankind. He repeatedly 
gives utterance to the same thought : — 

"Be ye therefore perfect, as your heavenly 
Father is perfect." (Matt. v. 29.) 

"Else ye have no reward with your Father 
which is in heaven." (Matt. vi. 1.) 



162 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

"And thy Father which seeth in secret shall 
recompense thee." (Matt. vi. 4.) 

"Pray to thy Father which is in secret, and 
thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense 
thee." (Matt. vi. 6.) 

" For your Father knoweth what things ye have 
need of." (Matt. vi. 8.) 

"For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your 
heavenly Father will also forgive you." (Matt, 
vi. 14.) 

" That ye may be sons of your Father which is 
in heaven." (Matt. v. 45.) 

"Be ye merciful, even as your Father is merci- 
ful." (Luke xliv. 36.) 

" Even so it is not the will of your Father which 
is in heaven, that one of these little ones should 
perish." (Matt, xviii. 14.) 

" I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and 
my God and your God." (John xx. 17.) 

The apostles teach the same doctrine : — 

" For ye are all sons of God." (Gal. iii. 
26.) 

"In this the children of God are manifest." 
(1 John iii. 10.) 

"The Spirit himself beareth witness with our 
spirits, that we are the children of God ; and if 
children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint heirs 
with Christ." (Rom. viii. 16, 17.) 



THE REVELATIONS COMPARED. 163 

"Then shall they be called sons of the living 
God." (Rom. X. 26.) 

" And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth 
the spirit of his own Son into your hearts." 

Nominally mankind have accepted Christ's teach- 
ing that they are children of God, — his sons and 
his daughters, — and in their prayers they address 
God as " our Father which art in heaven ; " but 
they seem to accept and believe it in any but a 
real sense. They do not seem to realize the fact 
that they are actually the children of the most high 
God ; that they are each and all known to him, 
and loved and cared for individually by him; that 
they are sons of God in the same way, to the same 
extent, and with the same being, as Jesus the 
Christ was Son of God. 

Men, in their spiritual ignorance, do not yet 
understand what it means to be a son of God ; they 
do not realize that they partake of the nature of 
the Deity in the same way that as son of man they 
partake of the human nature. 

When God says, "Let us make man in our 
image," we should remember that God speaks not 
at all, but that it is the author placing the words 
in the mouth of God, as a statement of his own 
belief or knowledge. This statement is confirmed 
by the Christ, who tells us that God is our Father, 
and that we are his children. A child partakes of 



164 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

the nature of his father, and man himself proves 
that he is the son of God by wielding the powers 
of the Deity. 

Man is a creator, not only of inanimate objects 
of wood, clay, stone, metals, and animal and vege- 
table substances, but he also creates new varieties 
of plants, flowers, fruits, and grains, improved va- 
rieties of the horse, ox, sheep, swine, dog, and 
other animals, to suit his taste, convenience, or 
necessity. He is omnipotent over the brute crea- 
tion, and causes many of the powers of nature to 
obey his will. He is largely omniscient and omni- 
present, causing the lightning to bear his messages 
across sea and land, and inform him of the daily 
occurrences in the furthermost parts of the earth. 
Creator, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent 
in his finite sphere, he exhibits his likeness to his 
infinite Father, God. He is doing this now in 
his childhood of existence, is gradually obtaining 
power over the works of his Father's hands, and 
causing them to obey his will. If he now, in his 
spiritual infancy, exerts so much power, what may 
we not expect from him as he rises nearer and 
nearer to the likeness of the perfect man in Christ 
Jesus? May we not believe, as man's life spiritu- 
ally approaches that of the Christ, that the power 
over nature which he possessed by reason of his 
singleness of purpose, and pureness of heart, may 



THE BEVEL ATIONS COMPARED. 165 

also be placed in the hands of man, to be used for 
the relief of pain and sickness, for the restoration 
of sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and a 
sound body to the paralyzed, lame, and injured? 

These are some of the powers of the Deity 
which man, the son of God, is using, or beginning 
to use, by reason of his birthright. 

Groping in the darkness of spiritual ignorance, 
he has yet, like a child, grasped some of the powers 
belonging to his nature, and almost by instinct 
obtained marvellous results. How much greater 
and more powerful will they be, when, recognizing 
his birthright, he seeks the aid of his Father in 
his endeavor to bless mankind ! 

But, while man employs these material powers 
of the Deity, he must remember that he is also 
possessor of his Father's spiritual nature. Love, 
mercy, justice, truthfulness, faithfulness, — all of 
these characteristics of God belong to man as son 
of God ; and he is required to seek for them with 
all his heart, and use them for the benefit of others. 
How much greater will be the results when man 
becomes aware that because he is the son of God 
he partakes fully of his nature ! 

The Christ has shown what it is possible for 
man to do in using the powers of God, and what 
it is possible for him to be, when, guided and in- 
fluenced by the characteristics of the Deity, he is 



166 ABYASy SEMITES AND JEWS. 

in full sympathy with the purposes of his Father 
in heaven. 

The Christ has given us a rule, by following 
which we shall attain both material and spiritual 
good in a degree corresponding with our ability 
and the earnestness of our prayers. 

The universal rule is this : — 

" Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall 
find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you ; " and 
Christ emphasizes this rule by a double declara- 
tion of it, " For every one that asketh receiveth, 
and he that seeketh findeth, and unto him that 
knocketh the door shall be opened." 

Asking in words is nothing but wind. Desire 
must develop in action, — in seeking, searching, 
knocking, working; giving heart, soul, mind, 
strength, the whole being, to accomplishing the 
object desired. 

A man wishes to obtain riches : he asks for it in 
act. He rises early, and retires late ; he throws 
into the accomplishing of his desire the time, 
strength, earnestness, and perseverance of his 
whole being, and succeeds. 

Another asks for knowledge : he studies late 
and early, gives his whole time and strength to 
the fulfilment of his purpose, and becomes a 
learned man. 

Others pray for fame, for political position, 



THE REVELATIONS COMPARED. 167 

military power : each gives his time, talents, ear- 
nestness, to attain his object ; and his success is in 
just proportion to his ability, and the earnestness 
of his work. 

So, in the higher spiritual wants, make your 
prayer active ; let your desires be accompanied by 
action, seeking and working until the door is 
found, and by that knocking which shall open the 
door of success, and you enter into the realization 
of your spiritual desires. The whole material and 
spiritual universe will be opened to the sons of 
God who shall earnestly desire to enter. 

ETERNAL LIFE THE GIFT OF GOD. 

A future life was revealed to the Aryas, which 
should be theirs on complying with the conditions. 
The fruit of the tree of life could not be stolen or 
obtained surreptitiously. The tree was protected 
from man by the flaming sword of God's require- 
ments. Man was created with the ability to 
desire, receive, and enjoy it; but only by doing 
the will of God could he obtain the coveted prize. 
It was in the hands of the Deity alone, for him to 
give in accordance with his will and promise. 

The Christ taught the same doctrine. Eternal 
life was in the hands of God. He had promised it 
as a gift to all who should do his will. The Christ 
revealed what were the requirements, in what way 



168 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

man could obtain this great boon. No other reli- 
gious teacher has revealed either the life or the 
way. 

He lived the life, and showed the way. He was 
the way, the truth, the life. He was the light of 
men : without him, they groped in darkness. His 
teachings were springs of living water, his truths 
meat and drink to the soul. His death and resur- 
rection opened the door. He was the resurrection 
and the life. Thus, in this literal manner, in his 
life, death, and resurrection, he embodied all his 
teachings. 

" He that heareth my word, and believeth him 
that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into 
judgment, hut hath passed out of death into life^ 
(John V. 24.) He has not to wait until death shall 
open his eyes, and bring him into judgment ; but 
he hath already passed through the judgment, 
already come into the kingdom of heaven, already 
hath obtained and doth enjoy the gift of God, — 
eternal life. 

" And this is life eternal, that they should know 
thee, the only true God, and him whom thou didst 
send, even Jesus Christ." (John xvii. 3.) 

" He whom God hath sent speaketh the words 
of God ; for he giveth not the Spirit by measure. 
The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all 
things into his hands. He that believeth on the 



THE REVELATIONS COMPARED, 169 

Son hath eternal life ; he that obeyeth not the Son 
shall not see life." (John iii. 34-36.) 

The Christ likens his teachings to "water, 
springing up into everlasting life." He says, "I 
am the bread of life which came down from 
heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and never 
die." He tells men to " work for the meat which 
abideth unto eternal life." 

Although the Christ taught that "he that be- 
lieveth on the Son hath eternal life," it is evident 
that more than intellectual belief is required. He 
continues, " He that oheyeth not the Son shall not 
see life." 

The Christ requires us to assimilate his teach- 
ings, as the body assimilates food. His teachings 
must be like water, like bread, like meat, taken 
into the system, sustaining the life, giving power 
and strength. We must live his teachings as he 
did, if we would obtain eternal life. 

The test of the Christian is the fruit. " Every 
good tree bringeth forth good fruit : therefore, by 
their fruits shall ye know them." The fig-tree 
that was green and flourishing, but bore no fruit, 
he condemned. 

The Christ says, " Not every one that saith unto 
me. Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my Father 
which is in heaven." There is no shibboleth in 



170 



the mere name of Christ to save men. Intellect- 
ual belief in creeds formed by man will not give 
entrance into eternal life. The life is the test, 
and the only test. Good fruit is the requirement 
of Christ. Only "he that doeth the will of my 
Father which is in heaven " will be admitted. 

" Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, 
did we not prophesy in thy name, and by thy 
name cast out devils, and by thy name do many 
wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto 
them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye 
workers of iniquity." And he likens those who 
hear his words, and do them^ to wise men who 
build upon a rock; and those who hear, and do 
them not, to foolish men who build upon the 
sand. 

Christ, after his interview with the young man 
that had great possessions, says, " It is hard for a 
rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven ; " 
and again, "I say unto you. It is easier for a 
camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich 
man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And 
when the disciples heard it, they were astonished 
exceedingly, saying, Who then can be saved? 
And Jesus, looking upon them, said to them, With 
man this is impossible: but with God all things 
are possible." 

In the parable of the talents, Christ reveals 



THE BEVEL ATIONS COMPARED. 171 

why it is so difficult for a rich man to enter the 
kingdom of God. 

Every man has one or more talents, that is, 
means and opportunities of doing good. God has 
given to some learning, others power, to others 
riches, and in that way multiplied their opportuni- 
ties to do good, and in the same way multiplied 
their obligations. The poorest may give a cheer- 
ing word, a helping hand, a cup of cold water, 
may visit and comfort the sick, may give a crust 
to a starving man, may warm a freezing one, and 
receive the acknowledgment of Christ, "Inas- 
much as ye did it unto one of these least, ye 
have done it unto me." In a thousand ways, the 
poorest may show their love for others, and thus 
use the single talent God has intrusted to them. 

Others by reason of position, learning, power, 
riches, have multiplied opportunities for good ; and 
with them come multiplied obligations. They are 
so many talents placed in their hands by God for 
use, not for their own selfish aggrandizement or 
pleasure, but to bless others ; and they are called 
upon by Christ to use them for the purposes re- 
quired of them. " To whomsoever much is given, 
of him shall much be required: and to whom 
they commit much, of him will they ask the more." 
With so much greater means of usefulness, their 
obligations are just so much greater : he who has 



172 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

the trust, must seek opportunities to fulfil it. 
He that uses his talents for his own pleasure only, 
buries his Lord's money. He does no good to his 
fellow-creatures, and receives the condemnation, 
"Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these 
least, ye did it not unto me." 

When we see the immense riches placed in the 
hands of some men, we tremble at the weight of 
obligation resting upon them. God claims the 
riches of the earth as belonging to him. Whoever 
receives them, receives them as the steward of 
God; and he is required to use them for God's 
purposes, and to benefit his fellow-man. God re- 
quires the interest of his money; and if the 
possessor neglects to pay it, he receives the con- 
demnation of the wicked and slothful servant. 

God requires of man his whole heart, its love, 
its fervor, its intellect and strength. While he is 
required to work on this earth to support himself, 
and those dependent on him, he is also required to 
do all his work in the spirit of his Master, all 
being made subsidiary to the grand object of this 
life, namely, eternal life. 

In the endeavor to heap up riches upon this 
earth, man is apt to give his whole heart to that 
one object, leaving God's claim entirely out of his 
thoughts. The law of Christ, " Ask, and ye shall 
receive ; seek, and ye shall find ', knock, and it shall 



THE BEVELATIONS COMPARED. 173 

be opened unto you," is a law of earth as well as of 
heaven. Whatever we seek with our whole heart, 
that we shall obtain. Whether it be " the king- 
dom of God, and his righteousness," or wisdom, 
glory, riches, whatever it may be, we shall obtain it 
to a greater or less degree according to our ability. 
All of these talents bear corresponding obligations; 
and woe to him who does not fulfil the obliga- 
tions resting upon him, and use them for the 
benefit of his fellow-man! The requirements of 
God are so great and so strict, that we can 
readily see why it is so hard, and almost impossi- 
ble, for a man who puts his trust in riches to enter 
into heaven. 

And the witness is this, that God gave unto us 
eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that 
hath the Son hath the life. (1 John v. 11, 12.) 

Christ shows that those who do the will of 
God as little children will receive eternal life ; 
that those who show a loving and forgiving 
disposition, will themselves receive forgiveness; 
that if the rich man uses the riches placed in his 
hands as a sacred trust to be accounted for, then 
he will receive eternal life. 

God requires all men to work in his vineyard. 
Those that heed the call will meet their reward. 
There can be no lazy Christian: every man is 
called upon to work. Whoever would be first in 



174 ABYASy SEMITES AND JEWS. 

tlie kingdom must serve, must work, even as Christ 
came to work, and even to give his life, that men 
might know how to obtain eternal life. 

In the parable of the householder, he proclaims 
that the kingdom of God shall be given to those 
bringing forth the fruits thereof. 

In the parable of the talents, it is those who 
use the talents which God has given them, that 
receive the commendation of their Lord, and are 
rewarded. 

God calls you to work in his vineyard, to use 
the talents he has given in doing good, and in 
advancing his kingdom in the hearts of men. As 
ye do this, ye will receive the blessing, "Well 
done, good and faithful servant." And ye shall be 
your own judges. Every one knows whether, and 
how earnestly, he is working in the vineyard. If 
ye are feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, 
visiting the sick, relieving the distressed, and 
doing this because you love your fellow-man, then 
to you is addressed the blessing, " Inasmuch as 
ye have done it unto one of these my brethren, ye 
have done it unto me. Come, ye blessed of my 
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from 
the foundation of the earth." 

Later, he shows that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
are all members of the kingdom. How? They 
neither knew of the laws of Moses, nor of Christ. 



THE REVELATIONS COMPARED. 175 

The Christian Scriptures say of Abraham, that " he 
wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong 
through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully 
assured that what he had promised he was able 
also to perform. Wherefore, also, it was reckoned 
unto him for righteousness," or right doing. In 
other words, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived up 
to the light which they had, — a very dim and 
unsatisfactory light, but by keeping faith in God 
as they knew him, and doing his will so far as it 
was revealed to them, they were accepted as 
righteous. 

So, too, Moses, Elias, and David are represented 
as receiving the approval of God; not that they 
lived perfect lives, but they lived up to the light 
which they had, or, like David, repented of grievous 
sins, and were received into life. 

Man, while born with the germ of eternal life, 
can by his own actions kill that germ. Sin is a 
disease, a poison, which indulged in will kill it. 
(Luke XX. 25.) "The wages [or result] of sin 
is death ; but the free gift of God is eternal life 
in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. vi. 23.) 

" If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it 
is that saith to thee, Give me to drink ; thou 
wouldst have asked of him, and he would have 
given thee living water. Whosoever drinketh of 
the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst ; 



176 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

but the water that I shall give him shall become 
in him a well of water, springing up into eternal 
life." (John iv. 10-14.) 

" Work not for the meat which perisheth, but 
for the meat which abideth unto eternal life, which 
the Son of man shall give unto you ; for him the 
Father, even God, hath sealed." (John vi. 27-29.) 

" I give unto them eternal life, and they shall 
never perish ; and no one shall snatch them out of 
my hand. My Father which hath given them 
unto me is greater than all, and no one is able to 
snatch them out of the Father's hand." (John x. 
28, 29.) 

" These things spake Jesus : and lifting up his 
eyes to heaven he said. Father, the hour is come ; 
glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee ; 
even as thou gavest him authority over all flesh, 
that whatsoever thou hast given him, to them he 
should give eternal life. And this is life eternal, 
that they should know thee the only true God, 
and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ." 
(John xvii. 1-3.) 

We have said that an actual knowledge of the 
Christ was not necessary to obtain eternal life. 
We give some illustrations of this position : — 

" And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and 
tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to 
inherit eternal life ? And he said unto him, What 



TUB REVELATIONS COMPARED. 177 

is written in the law ? How readest thou ? And 
he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and 
with all thy strength, and with all thy mind ; and 
thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him. 
Thou hast answered right. This do, and thou 
shalt live:' (Luke x. 25-28.) 

That there may be no misunderstanding of his 
teaching on this point, the Christ, in his parable 
representing that day which shall come to all, 
when the secrets of all hearts shall be opened, and 
the laws of the kingdom applied and enforced, says 
to those who had loved their fellow-men, and had 
done good to them, though they knew not that 
they were thus doing in accordance to the Christ's 
injunctions, *' Come, ye blessed of my Father, in- 
herit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world ; for I was a hungered, 
and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave 
me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me in ; 
naked, and ye clothed me ; I was sick, and ye 
visited me ; I was in prison, and ye came unto 
me." And upon their expressing astonishment, 
not having known him, he says, " Inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me." He says to 
those who had neglected their duty, who had not 
loved and aided their fellow-men, "Inasmuch as 



178 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it 
not to me. And these shall go away into everlast- 
ing punishment ; but the righteous, into life 
eternal." (Matt. xxv. 31.) 

There is here no question of faith, or belief in 
Christ, in unity or trinity, in Adam's sin or total 
depravity ; but, what have you done to benefit 
your fellow-men? Love to man is the key to 
heaven and to eternal life. 

Peter teaches the same doctrine : — 

" Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter 
of persons; but in every nation he that feareth 
him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with 
him." 

It is true, however, that we can seek eternal life 
only through the Christ, for through his teachings 
only do we know how to obtain it. No other 
teacher before or since has shown man the way to 
eternal life. Other foundation can no man lay 
than that is laid, Jesus Christ. 

GOD'S PLAN- OF SALVATION. 

In the revelation to the Aryas, we find the 
record that God gave unto man the animal in- 
stincts for his rule of life ; these were his laws of 
action, under the guidance of which all his actions 
were innocent. When these had been enlarged by 
his intellect, he was governed and judged by the 



THE REVELATIONS COMPARED. 179 

moral law of right and wrong. Not until he had 
obtained a knowledge of God and of his laws, 
had partaken of the fruit of the tree of the knowl- 
edge of good and evil, was he subject to the higher 
law of the kingdom of God. 

The Christ was prevented by the spiritual igno- 
rance of his time from teaching the same doctrine 
direct : it would have been misunderstood ; but for 
the instruction of later times, he has given us in 
three beautiful parables, — which are one, — a 
clear statement of God's watchfulness and care 
of his children. 

The circumstances under which these parables 
were uttered are given as follows : — 

" Now all the publicans and sinners were draw- 
ing near unto him for to hear him ; and both the 
Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying. This 
man receiveth sinners^ and eateth with them." 

In answer to the murmurings of these self- 
righteous Jews, Christ spoke unto them this para- 
ble, saying, — 

" What man of you, having a hundred sheep, 
and having lost one of them, doth uot leave the 
ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after 
that which is lost until he find it ? And when he 
hath found it he layeth it on his shoulders rejoi- 
cing; and when he cometh home he calleth to- 
gether his fyiends and his neighbors, saying unto 



180 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my 
sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that even 
so there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that 
repenteth, more than over ninety and nine right- 
eous persons which need no repentance." 

The civilized nations at the time of the Christ 
were governed by the moral law of man, the law 
of right and wrong. They had no knowledge of 
God or of his laws. They were generally content 
with merely animal existence. Their lives were 
spent in animal delights. In the parable, these 
nations were likened unto sheep ; they having as 
little knowledge of God, as the sheep of its shep- 
herd. As the shepherd searches for the stray 
sheep, and brings him back to the fold, so God is 
represented as seeking and caring for his children 
who in ignorance have wandered away from him ; 
they are his children, he cares for them, and not 
one is lost. 

Christ then utters another parable, enforcing 
the same lesson respecting another class of indi- 
viduals and nations, in these words : — 

" Or what woman having ten pieces of silver, if 
she lose one piece, doth not light a lamp, and 
sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find 
it? and when she hath found it she calleth to- 
gether her friends and neighbors, saying. Rejoice 
with me, for I h^-ve found the piece which I had 



THE BEVELATIONS COMPARED, 181 

lost. Even so, I say unto you, there is joy in the 
presence of the angels of God over one sinner 
that repenteth." 

In this parable Christ pictures those individuals 
and nations who have no knowledge of God, and 
no law but their instincts, the law of nature. As 
the money knows not its owner, and rolls away 
without intent or knowledge, so there are nations 
who as yet have received no moral light whatever ; 
they have no moral obligations ; they are still ani- 
mals governed by their animal passions and appe- 
tites. Yet, as the money belonged to the woman, 
so these human beings belong to God; they are 
his children. As the money was stamped with 
the image and superscription of Ceesar, so these 
human beings bear God's image and superscrip- 
tion, and are the objects of his love and care. 
As the woman searched diligently for the lost 
money, so God watches over and keeps in his 
own possession these ignorant and darkened 
children ; not one of them is lost, but all are 
safely kept in his bosom. Or if, in the glimmering 
of light, one strays away, he is diligently sought, 
and returned to the care of his owner. Neither 
of these two classes are sinners, nor are any of 
them lost. 

Having shown to the scribes and Pharisees 
God's love for the most degraded and ignorant of 



182 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

his children, those whom the Jews held in the 
utmost scorn and contempt, Christ proceeds to 
describe still another class of individuals and 
nations, giving us the well-known parable of the 
younger son, in which he shows us God's method 
of proceeding with those who have been brought 
up in the Father's house, who, like the young 
man, wilfully turn away from the instruction and 
protection, and break away from the restraints of 
home, who knowingly depart to revel in sin, even 
until they become in their desires and inclinations 
like unto swine. Even they can come back : they 
are God's children, and he loves and mourns over 
them. But they are free agents, unlike those 
described in the first two parables. These are 
not ignorant of God's laws. They have sinned 
against light and knowledge, and if they come 
back it must be of their own free will ; they 
must be ready to acknowledge their sin, and of 
their own accord seek pardon and forgiveness ; 
they must arise, and go to their Father. Unlike 
the other cases, God does not personally seek 
them. They must come to him ; they know the 
way back to his home and his forgiveness. He 
is ready to meet them while yet a great way 
off, and he receives them with joy. No long pen- 
ance, no terrible punishment for what they have 
done ; but they are cleansed and clothed anew, 



THE REVELATIONS COMPABED, 183 

they are met with joy and gladness, and welcomed 
to the Father's house. 

Among the Jews were those who had obtained 
a partial knowledge of good and evil through the 
teachings of the prophets and other religious 
instructors. The scribes and Pharisees, and the 
more learned of the Jews, were farther advanced 
in spiritual knowledge than the men of any other 
nation. They were partially aware of God's 
requirements, and the Christ designates them as 
elder sons. This parable, which at the time was 
directed especially to them, is more particularly 
applicable to Christians, to whom the Christ has 
revealed the laws of the kingdom. 

Christians, unlike all others, have partaken of 
the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil. They are aware of God's laws and require- 
ments. The Christ has placed the laws of the 
kingdom in their hands ; and they, if they stray 
into evil, can only come back by their own 
choice, their own free will. 

In the parable, the Christ administers a rebuke 
to the scribes and Pharisees for their selfishness 
and religious intolerance, which it may be well for 
men in these days of religious bigotry to remem- 
ber. 

Is it not strange that men calling themselves 
Christians, and in their acts and lives showing 



184 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

many of the Christian graces, should still, in their 
spiritual pride, become so stultified and void of 
true Christian discernment as to claim that God 
condemns the ignorant millions of men who have 
not as yet obtained the slightest knowledge of 
God or of his laws, to endless torment because 
of their ignorance? God in his original revela- 
tion to the Aryas declares that men ignorant of 
his laws are innocent, not subject to punishment. 
The Christ in this parable teaches the same great 
doctrine. Any other course would make God a 
terrible and bloodthirsty tyrant, such as no words 
could describe and no imagination of man con- 
ceive. The blackest devil that was ever imagined 
would be an angel of light in comparison. 

" And that servant which knew his lord's will, 
and made not ready, nor did according to his will, 
shall be beaten with man^ stripes; but he that 
Jcnew not^ and did things worthy of stripes, shall be 
beaten vfiih. few stripes." (Luke xii. 47, 48.) 

ETERNAL DEATH, OR DISSOLUTION. 

Eternal death, while not distinctly taught to 
the Aryas, was strongly indicated. Eternal life 
was the gift of God. The tree of life was guarded 
from all others by the " cherubim and a flaming 
sword which turned every way, to keep the way 
of the tree of life." If eternal life was given 



THE BEVEL ATIONS COMPARED. 185 

only to those who do his will, then eternal death 
must be the fate of all others. 

The teachings of Christ show conclusively that 
there are some who will not obtain eternal life. 
While he opens the way to immortality, he says 
that none but those who do the will of God will 
be admitted. The unforgiving will not be ad- 
mitted. " If ye forgive not men their trespasses, 
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." 
In the parable of the householder, he proclaims 
that the kingdom of God "shall be taken away^"* 
from those who do not bring forth the fruit 
thereof. 

" Not every one that saith unto me. Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt, 
vii. 21.) 

" Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, 
I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and ^hall 
not he able,^^ (Luke xiii. 24.) 

"It is easier for a camel to go through a 
needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the 
kingdom of heaven." (Luke xviii, 25.) 

" He that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life," 
(John iii. 36.) 

"I have no pleasure in the death of him that 
dieth, saith the Lord God." (Ezek. xviii. 32.) 

"If a man see his brother sinning a sin not 
unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him 



186 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

life for them that sin not unto death. There is a 
sin unto deatJu^ (1 John v. 16.) 

" He that hath not the Son of God hath not 
lifer (John V. 12.) 

Christ saj^s, " It is not the will of your Father 
which is in heaven, that one of these little ones 
should perish ; " showing that they can perish, that 
is, cease to exist ; not the body, for all perish, but 
the spiritual being we call soul. Paul says, " For 
the wages of sin is death,^^ (Rom. vi. 23.) The 
result or consequences of sin is the death of the 
sinner. This idea of destruction is carried out in 
all the imagery of the Gospels. Not only is that 
the case, but the similes used show sudden and 
immediate destruction in most cases. 

Christ says, "Every tree therefore that bring- 
eth not forth good fruit is hewn iown and cast into 
the fire." It is burned up, destroyed. He says, 
Christ will " gather his wheat into the garner, but 
the chafp he will hum with unquenchable fire." 
Nothing will burn and be destroyed quicker than 
chaff. It is the fire (Christ's words), that is 
unquenchable. Christ likens those who hear his 
words, and do them not^ to a " foolish man which 
built his house upon the sand," and it fell and was 
destroyed. He tells his disciples, "Be not afraid 
of them which kill the body, but are not able to 
kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able 



THE REVELATIONS COMPARED. 187 

to destroy both soul and body in hell ; " again indi- 
cating the death of the soul. In the parable of 
the wheat and tares, the tares are gathered into 
bundles and burned, — destroyed, 

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man 
would come after me, let him deny himself, and 
take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever 
would save his life shall lose it, and whosoever 
shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. For 
what shall a man be profited if he shall gain the 
whole world, and lose his own soulf (Matt. xvi. 
24-26.) 

In the parable of the wicked husbandmen, he 
says of their lord: "He will come and destroy 
those wicked men." (Matt. xxi. 41.) 

While Christ describes the fate of some as being 
destroyed suddenly, like chafp and tares burned up 
in the fire, or like a tree cut down at the roots, 
others are not destroyed, but are cast out into 
outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnash- 
ing of teeth, images of sorrow, remorse, despair ; 
still others are represented as receiving eternal 
punishment. 

In the parable of the wedding feast, the servants 
east out the man without a wedding garment. In 
the parable of the unfaithful servant, and in the 
parable of the unprofitable servant, the punish- 
ment in each case is the same : " Cast him into 



188 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

outer darkness ; there shall be weeping and gnash- 
ing of teeth." 

" Unto them that obey not the truth, but obey 
unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, 
tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man 
that worketh evil." (Rom. ii. 8, 9.) 

"And one said unto him, Lord, are they few 
that be saved ? And he said unto them. Strive to 
enter in by the narrow door: for many, 1 say 
unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be 
able. When once the master of the house is risen 
up, and hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand 
without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, 
open to us ; and he shall answer and say to you, 
I know ye not whence ye are ; then shall ye 
begin to say. We did eat and drink in thy pres- 
ence, and thou didst teach in our streets. And 
he shall say, I tell you, I know not whence ye 
are : depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. 
There shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth." 

Two questions arise. Do those who, having 
committed sin, afterward repent and receive the 
remission or pardon of their sins, and the gift of 
eternal life, escape the punishment of their sins? 
And do those who die unrepentant, and come 
forth to the resurrection of judgment, have no 
opportunity in the world beyond to repent of their 
sins, and by doing works of righteousness there 
obtain pardon and eternal life ? 



THE REVELATIONS COMPABED. 189 

" The wages," or the result, " of sin is death." 
Sin produces the death of the spiritual being. 
As poison or disease in the human frame weakens, 
paralyzes, and finally destroys the body, so sin, 
unrepented of, weakens, paralyzes, and finally 
destroys the soul. The disease may be slight or 
serious, and be longer or shorter in its action : the 
result is certain unless arrested in its progress. 
Christ is the physician who shows us the remedy, 
and offers us the means of recovery. If we accept 
his aid, follow his advice, and use the means he 
offers, we recover, the sickness is overcome, the 
poison removed, health returns, and eternal life is 
the result. 

But has this poison, this sickness, left no results? 
As the human frame is weakened by sickness, 
scarred by wounds, so the spiritual body must 
bear the effects of sin. God forgives the sins 
committed against him, and wipes them from the 
book of his remembrance, and grants the repent- 
ant sinner eternal life ; but can the man forgive 
himself? Every sin is committed against some 
other beside God, and bears results that are, 
perhaps, never-ending. All sins injure others. 

The spiritual being who enters into life par- 
doned by God, has passed through the judgment, 
condemned not by God nor Christ, but by himself. 
He sees the long train of evils produced by his 



190 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

own sins, and is anxious to stop their effect, to 
wipe them out, or do something whereby he may 
cover them. If he cannot do this, do not his sins 
pursue and punish him, notwithstanding his par- 
don ? and would not the punishment be increasing 
and eternal? He must, for his own happiness, 
cover them over by good deeds ; and he must have 
the opportunity to do this in the world beyond. 

These same questions arise with regard to the 
unrepentant sinner. One man sins. By the mercy 
of God he is awakened to a sense of his sin, to a 
judgment here before the resurrection : he repents, 
his sins are remitted, and he receives the gift of 
eternal life. Another sins, no worse than the first, 
is suddenly cut off by death without repentance, 
and awakes to the resurrection of judgment. 
Like the first man, is there no opportunity for 
him to repent of the sins done in the body? Can 
he not, in his new state of existence, repent, and 
do something to wipe out or cover his sins ? One 
man is killed by another. The murderer repents 
of his evil deeds, passes through the judgment 
here, his sins are remitted, and he enters into life. 
The victim enters the judgment of the resurrec- 
tion. Shall he have no opportunity of reform, 
no opportunity by good works to cover his sins? 
The death of the mortal body makes no change 
in the man. What he was before he dropped the 



THE REVELATIONS COMPARED. 191 

earthly clothing, he is afterward, with the same 
propensities, desires, habits of thought, the love 
for the same objects. The man whose thoughts 
rest principally upon " what shall I eat, and what 
shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be clothed?" 
will have the same thoughts beyond, without the 
power of supplying his desires. He who is im- 
mersed in his business will be held down to earth, 
and still interested in its details, without the 
ability to take part therein. The man who has 
made gold his god, and has spent his life in accu- 
mulating riches, will still gloat over the gold he 
sees others spend with such recklessness. "Where 
your treasure is, there shall your heart be also," is 
a law of God ; and men build here their own 
prisons, block out their own position hereafter , 
and the god they worshipped here, they will con- 
tinue to worship there, unless, awakened to judg- 
ment, they repent, and receive the remission of 
their sins. Men of vicious habits, intemperate, 
quarrelling, lascivious, murderous, enter the resur- 
rection the same men. All are bound down to 
earth, some in sorrow, some in shame and despair, 
some in anger. But God is merciful, and the 
poison of sin will soon carry off those who do 
not repent. And again comes the question. Can 
they repent, and be forgiven? 

Christ says, " My Father worketh hitherto, and 



192 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

I worh,"" Work is the necessity of man's nature 
here, and undoubtedly the law holds good in the 
future state of existence. Look at the universe, 
and see God's work ; and shall man, who partakes 
of his nature and being, in the eternal life remain 
idle? It is impossible. Man has his work to 
perform in the immortal as in the mortal life. 
And what should that work be, but the endeavor 
to benefit the loved whom he has left behind, to 
wipe out if possible the results of his own sins, or 
to cover them by good deeds? "He who convert- 
eth a sinner from the error of his way shall save 
a soul from deaths and shall cover a multitude of 
sins." And shall this be the case only in this 
world? Can we believe that the departed are 
unable to influence those whom they have left 
behind ? or have they no ability to benefit others 
in the other world? 

" The Lord is longsuffering to us-ward, not will- 
ing that any should perish, but that all should 
come to repentance." " I have no pleasure in the 
death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: 
wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." " Even 
so it is not the will of your Father which is in 
heaven, that one of these little ones should per- 
ish." Then is there no way by which the sinner 
may even then return to God his Father, and 
receiving his pardon join the throngs of the blessed ? 



THE BEVELATIONS COMPABED. 193 

With our limited vision, if there is no oppor- 
tunity beyond this little human life, for God's 
children to come unto him, there seems to be 
an injustice not in accordance with either his 
justice, his love, or his desire that all should be 
saved. 

Let us take the instance of the rich young man, 
of whom it is said, " And Jesus looking upon him 
loved him^ and said unto him. One thing thou 
lackest. Go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to 
the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; 
and come, follow me. But his countenance fell at 
the saying, and he went away sorrowing : for he 
was one that had great possessions." Here was a 
man who could say of himself, in reference to the 
commandments, "All these things have I observed 
from my youth." Who of us can say the same ? 
And yet he is condemned. Why ? Because, hav- 
ing the opportunity, by reason of his great wealth, 
to do so much good, he had neglected his oppor- 
tunities, allowed his Lord's money to lie idle ; had 
hid the talents placed in his charge. His posses- 
sions belonged to God ; he was God's steward, and 
should have used his Lord's money to aid the dis- 
tressed. This he had not done : he only thought 
of himself, used the money for his own pleasure 
and aggrandizement, and left his brothers in want. 
And he meets with the condemnation of the 



194 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

servant who had neglected his one talent ; namely, 
to outer darkness. 

Is there no opportunity for the man, when he 
awakes into the resurrection of judgment, to re- 
form, — to repent? Christ says there is a possi- 
bility. His disciples ask in wonder, "Who then 
can be saved ? " and his answer is, " With God all 
things are possible." 

In awakening in the outer darkness to a knowl- 
edge of our sins, are the tears of remorse and 
repentance to be of no avail in the other world? 
In the parable of the unforgiving steward, Christ 
says, " And his lord was wroth, and delivered him 
to the tormentors till he should pay all that was 
due."" Here is an indication that after judgment, 
and the delivery to the tormentors (his own 
conscience), after the spiritual being awakens to 
the knowledge of its sins which the resurrection 
gives, and which is the judgment, even then there 
is a way left by which payment may be made, by 
which the sins unrepented of in this life may still 
be repented of in the other world, and by work 
and personal exertion the sinner receive pardon 
and eternal life. 

Christ says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall 
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that 
hear shall live. . . . For the hour cometh, in which 



THE BEVEL ATIONS COMPARED. 195 

all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and 
shall come forth ; they that have done good^ unto 
the resurrection of life [no creed, or belief in 
Christ, no profession of faith required, but those 
that have done good^ ; and they that have done 
evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." (John 
V. 19-29.) 

What is the resurrection of judgment, but the 
awakening of conscience? 

"For this cause was the gospel preached also 
to them that are dead ; that thei/ might be judged 
according to men in the flesh, but live according 
to God in the spirit." (1 Pet. iv. 6.) 

In this life, those who have entered into heaven, 
and have received the gift of eternal life, have 
passed through the judgment, before the resurrec- 
tion, and at the death of the body pass from 
heaven here to heaven above. Those who have 
not gone through this experience of judgment in 
this world, pass through the same judgment at 
their resurrection. May not the sinner who 
awakens .to a knowledge of his sins at his resur- 
rection, be able to repent and do works of right- 
eousness, even as is required of those who repent 
here, and there receive the forgiveness of God? 
" If a man see his brother sinning a sin not unto 
death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for 
them that sin not unto death." And if prayers for 



196 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

those whom we love are answered here, is there 
no hope that prayers for those who have gone 
before may be equally as effectual with God ? 

God is love ; and he loves the children he has 
made, and is not willing that the least of us should 
perish, but that all should receive eternal life. 
He rejoices more over one sinner that repenteth, 
than over ninety and nine just persons who need 
no repentance. And will he not lend a listening 
ear to those repentant souls in outer darkness, 
who are weeping in remorse, or gnashing their 
teeth in despair? Will he not hear their cry? 
What is the use of the outer darkness, the awak- 
ening to a knowledge of their sin, if it be not for 
the purpose of repentance on one side, and pardon 
on the other ? 

When we can get away from our old and crude 
ideas of heaven as a place of existence beyond this 
world only, and realize that it is a state of exist- 
ence, a state of happiness commenced here on this 
earth ; when we realize that eternal life is also 
commenced here, and that every man who really 
accepts Christ, and does the will of God, has 
already entered heaven, and received the gift of 
eternal life, — we may also be able to understand 
that eternal death, annihilation, also commences in 
this world ; that the chaos of hell, as well as the 
kingdom of heaven, is within us ; that that also is 



TBE BEVEL ATIONS COMPARED. 197 

not a place, but a state of existence, the full mis- 
ery of which, in the one case, we do not realize 
here, any more than we experience the full bless- 
ings and happiness of heaven, or realize the gift of 
eternal life, in the other. 

Then, what is the resurrection of judgment, and 
the outer darkness which Christ pictures as the 
condition of the wicked and unrepentant? Is it 
not the awakening to a knowledge of our sinful- 
ness, into a realization of our position ? Is it not, 
that the disinthralled spirit now takes cognizance 
of the sins done in the body ? Does it not see the 
many opportunities lost ? Then it is that out of 
the blackness and darkness of their sinful state, 
some repent in tears and wailings their past life, 
their wasted opportunities, and cry for mercy; 
while others, overwhelmed with a knowledge of 
their sins, and feeling the impossibility of forgive- 
ness, gnash their teeth with fierce anger and 
despair. Sin may have had such hold on some, as 
to have weakened their spiritual being to such an 
extent that there is no recuperation, and a knowl- 
edge of their sinfulness leads to despondency and 
despair, and their existence ceases; they die the 
second death. 

Let us remember, the dead that hear shall 
live. 

If the kingdom of heaven begins on this earth, 



198 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

how are we to know that we have entered therein, 
and obtained eternal life ? 

God is love : so, too, is heaven. Love is its life, 
its being, its atmosphere, its language. Love to 
God is shown by love to man. " If a man say, I 
love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for 
he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, 
cannot love God whom he hath not seen ; and this 
commandment have we from him, that he who 
loveth God love his brother also." What have 
you done to help your fellow-man, — physically, in- 
tellectually, morally, or spiritually? What have 
you done to increase the happiness of one the least 
of these my brethren? is the question propounded 
by Christ ; and as your answer is, so is your sen- 
tence. And these questions you can answer here 
and now. Have you given meat to the hungry, 
and drink to the thirsty ? Have you sheltered the 
stranger, clothed the naked, visited the sick and 
the prisoner? Have you taught the ignorant, 
shown God's love to the vile, and instructed the 
wicked in the ways of truth and holiness? and 
have you done this, not to save your own life (for 
he that saveth his life shall lose it), but because of 
your love for your fellow-men, and from a genuine 
desire to aid them and do them good ? The judg- 
ment is passed at once upon you. "My words 
shall judge you," says Christ. You are your own 



TBE REVELATIONS COMPARED. 199 

judge ; and as your answer to these questions in the 
light of the Christ's teachings is yes or no, shall 
you know whether or not you are in the kingdom 
of heaven, whether or not you have already re- 
ceived the gift of eternal life. Christ has given 
this test, and each of us can answer. y 

Let us remember we cannot do righteousness by ' 
proxy after our death: to do righteousness is to 
live a righteous and holy life. Many a millionnaire 
holds on to his Lord's money until his last breath, 
and then endeavors to make a virtue of necessity, 
and thinks he is doing God a service which will 
be credited to him, by devising the property, which 
is not his, for charitable objects. He is thus giving 
God's money into other hands, that their faithful- 
ness may enure to his benefit. Only while it is in 
his possession, is it his as trustee for his Lord : when 
his body dies, his trust ceases. Only while he 
lives, can he use or abuse the talents God has put 
into his hands, and for that use or abuse he must 
answer. 

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not 
inherit the kingdom of God ? " (1 Cor. vi. 9.) 



200 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 



VI. 

OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 
ANGELS AND DEVILS, HEAVEN AND HELL. 

In the religion of the Aryas, there was not so 
much as an intimation or suggestion of a being or 
power antagonistic to the Deity. No god of evil, 
Satan, or devil, was known. Nor was there any 
thing suggestive of hell or of eternal punishment. 
On the contrary, the image of the cherubim, and the 
flaming sword turning every way to keep the tree 
of life, suggests instant destruction, not eternal 
suffering. Neither did the Christ or his apostles 
teach the existence of either. 

As the Deity, in his initial contract with Abram, 
met Jiim on the par of Ms understanding and be- 
lief; and also in the greater contract made with 
the Hebrews, again, met them on the plane of their 
belief, and used it for his own purposes, — so the 
Christ met the Jews of his time on the plane of 
their belief, and used that belief in illustration of 
his teachings. Evil was in the world. How it 
came, was an unsolved problem ; the only apparent 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS, 201 

solution was to charge it to a god of evil, and 
Satan was the result. 

Owing to their belief in Hades, or hell, and in 
devils and demons, the revelation of the Christ 
was not so full and free on this point as the origi- 
nal made to the Aryas. It would have been use- 
less for him to have denied the existence of either. 
In those respects he was confined, but he used 
these beliefs to emphasize the torments of remorse. 

" Hell " is used in the New Testament, both in 
the sense of the grave, and as the name of an un- 
derground abode of spirits (called " sheol " in the 
new translation). Existence in this place was 
rather misty and undefined, as well as the object 
of it. 

During their two hundred years of Persian 
nationality, the religion of the Jews became tinged 
with the Persian doctrines of the conflicting 
powers of good and evil. 

The self-existent and spiritual God, called by 
the Persians Ahura-Mazda, was the good power ; 
and Akem-mano, or Satan, was the evil or bad 
power. These powers had systems of angels, 
archangels, and powers of light, on the one side, 
and devils, demons, and powers of darkness, on 
the other ; and these dual gods were supposed to 
be in constant conflict, through the forces at their 
command. 



202 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

In the Jewish writings of that time, we have 
the first indications of belief in evil personalities 
or devils ; and about the same time are found the 
first indications of a belief in immortality, and of 
future reward and punishment. 

The Jews do not appear to have applied the idea 
of a spiritual god to Jehovah. This spiritual god 
was the god of the Persians, and they did not 
associate the two ; to them they were distinct and 
separate gods. 

This belief in angels and other angelic beings, 
and in devils and other evil powers, appears three 
hundred and fifty years later, at the time of Christ, 
in a modified form. 

While the Jews believed in Satan as a power of 
evil, they did not believe in him as a god, but 
more as he is represented in the Book of Job 
(where he is called a son of God), as a being per- 
mitted by God to wander to and fro in the earth, 
to test the faith of mankind by tormenting them 
with pa'in, and afflicting them with sickness. 
Insane persons were believed to be possessed or 
controlled by devils. 

It will be observed that Christ met these diseased 
persons on the plane of their own and the general 
belief. He addresses them, and commands the 
evil spirits to depart from them, with the author- 
ity of a master confident of his power. There is 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 203 

no hesitation in the command, nor delay in the 
result. He shows that, whether it be a sickness, 
or an actual possession, it is wholly under control ; 
and he gives no aid or comfort to a belief in Satan 
or devils, as beings beyond the power of God, or 
of himself as God's messenger and agent. 

The idea of Satan and devils, coupled with 
a place of punishment called hell, are entirely 
ignored in the teachings of Christ and in the 
preaching of the apostles and early Christians ; but 
were at a later period introduced as a doctrine 
of the Christian Church, and in the Dark Ages 
took shape, intensity, and prominence, in corre- 
spondence with the savage and barbarous feelings 
of the time, when men were guided more by pas- 
sion and superstition than by reason ; when force 
was the power which ruled the home and the 
world, and religious zeal enforced a religion of 
vengeance and hate, miscalled Christian, by war 
and carnage, by breaking at the wheel, and burn- 
ing at the stake, and by the wholesale destruction 
and slaughter of those differing from them on 
unimportant points of doctrine. This doctrine of 
the dual gods of good and ^vil has come down to 
us. Men even now cling to this belief. Many of 
them fear tli^ Devil more than they love God ; 
and to use the name of the Devil irreverently meets 
the same, perhaps heavier reproof than would the 



204 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

like use of the name of the Deity. They scout 
Christ's teaching of the love of God as impossible 
and unworthy of him ; and many teachers of false 
Christianity believe the fear of the Devil and hell 
is more efficacious in bringing souls to repentance 
than is the long-suffering kindness and tender 
mercy of our God. 

The orthodox hell and Devil is a manufacture 
of the Dark Ages, intensified by Calvin ; a belief 
entirely different from that of any other people 
in any age of the world, and wholly unknown 
to the Jews in the time of Christ, or to the 
apostles. 

Knowing that selfishness, sin, and crime create 
hell, and that the stings of remorse are much 
more painful and lasting than the torments of 
devils, Christ used the belief of his time to color 
and point his imagery of the punishments of the 
sinful man thereafter. 

Neither Christ nor his apostles taught of a per- 
sonal Devil. If there is such a personality, he 
must either be self-existent, — and, if so, then 
another and antagonistic god, apparently more 
powerful than God our Father, — or he is a cre- 
ated being. If created, then he is a son of God, 
created and sustained by him. Without God he 
cannot live a moment. He cannot antagonize 
Gp(l, except as a wicked m^in may be said to 



OTHEB CHBISTIAN SUBJECTS. 205 

oppose him. He is wholly and entirely a child of 
God, and can do nothing but by his permission. 

So, too, if God created and sustains this uni- 
verse and all that is therein, then, if there is such 
a place as hell, it must be in the universe, and 
wholly under God's control. The devils cannot 
exist, nor hell he, without God. He holds them 
and it in his hands and in his keeping. 

Christ was aware that the sufferings of the 
wicked were much greater than any punishment 
believed in by the Jews, and that the place where 
those wicked spirits did congregate was blacker 
and darker than any " Hades " which the imagina- 
tion of man had conceived. 

He saw human devils, the spirits of the departed 
wicked, still bound to earth, and employed in 
tempting men, and urging those on earth in the 
flesh, who were wickedly inclined, to their spirit- 
ual destruction. 

He saw the spirits of the selfish, of the rich who 
had cruelly neglected their duties on earth ; had 
acted as if the riches in their possession belonged 
to them ; and had forgotten that they were only 
the chosen almoners of God, who had commanded 
them to aid the distressed, succor the feeble, give 
to them that are in want, clothe the naked, heal 
the sick, feed the hungry, in fact, hold the riches in 
their hands as the servants of the most high God, 



206 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

the bestowers of his bounty. He saw these bound 
to the earth by their interest in this god of their 
worship ; one watching the spendthrift son, while 
squandering his money, sink deeper and deeper 
into the depths of sin and iniquity, — the result of 
his own sinful neglect of his duties as a father. 
Another watching the sorrows of many whom he 
had known on the earth, while they struggled 
against sickness and discouragements ; those to 
whom a gift of a few hundreds or thousands of 
his former hoarded wealth would have been a 
blessing which would have encouraged them, and 
placed them above want ; and thousands of others 
who might have been helped by him, and whose 
benedictions would have gladdened his soul. 

He saw the hypocrite, who on earth had been 
loud in professions, and given to long prayers, but 
who had secretly cheated the rich and robbed the 
poor, now unable to even raise his eyes in prayer ; 
with his soul in all its blackness in full view 
before him, his secret sins exposed not only to 
himself but to all others, with his deadened con- 
science alive and stinging him. 

He saw the favored of fortune, the high-liver, 
the good fellow, so-called, with his whole selfish, 
wicked, licentious life before him, bowed down 
in humiliation and shame ; overwhelmed with re- 
morse; unable in his despair to utter even the 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 207 

publican's prayer, " God be merciful to me a 
sinner." 

Such as these, and worse, were the scenes open 
to the eyes of the Christ ; and is it any wonder 
that he should use the strongest types of suffering 
to portray to man the terrible punishment of the 
impenitent wicked? 

These were the devils, and these the hells, 
opened to the spiritual sight of the Christ. 

But there were other sights. If hell is within 
man, so also is heaven. Of children he says, 
"Their angels do always behold the face of my 
Father which is in heaven." They were under 
the tender care of the spirits of the blest. 

If the spirits of the wicked are able to influence 
the souls of those on earth, who, by dwelling on 
evil, and harboring impure and wicked thoughts, 
desires, and purposes, invite their entrance; in 
the same manner, the spirits of the lovely and 
pure can influence those who inwardly desire and 
seek for good. J 

The spirits of the loved and lost on earth still '*^ 
hover around us, ready with their aid and help, 
with their suggestions of good ; and the power of 
these spirits is great for the benefit of those 
whom they love and care for. There is no hell so 
deep, no sinner so foul, no suffering so great, that 
these angelic workers of God cannot penetrate 



208 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

the depth so deep, reach the sinner so foul, and 
endeavor to turn the sufferer to his Father who 
ever loveth him, and hath compassion on his suf- 
fering, and is ready to pardon his sins. 

God is not willing that any should perish, but 
that all should receive eternal life. 

"All souls are mine," saith the Lord; and 
" none shall take them out of my Father's hands," 
saith the Christ. 

Death merely relieves the human being of its 
covering of flesh. The man is the same the day 
after that he was the day before his disrobement ; 
but in the removal of his fleshly covering, man is 
exposed naked to his own gaze, and to the sight 
of the spirits around him. 

See the abasement of the self-righteous man, 
the horror of the murderer, the deep degradation 
of the licentious, the suffering of the selfish, the 
despair of those who have wasted their gifts and 
opportunities. See them as they follow the effect 
of their sins on others in the ever-widening wave 
of eternit}'-, and imagine, if you can, their terror 
and shame ; imagine how they are weighed down 
by remorse ; imagine what a tremendous effort is 
necessary for them, in view of their sins, to raise 
a thought or prayer to Him whose laws they have 
so outraged and disobeyed. 

See, too, the meek, the humble, the lowly, as he 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 209 

awakes to a knowledge of himself, and raises a 
prayer of thankfulness to Him who has preserved 
him. See him who has used his talents, whether 
one or ten, for the benefit of others ; who has 
given of his riches, whether much or little, to those 
in need ; him whose sympathy has been shown in 
kind deeds and expressions of love. See those 
who have worked for the benefit of mankind, 
whose love of God was shown by love of man. 
See these as they hear the benediction of the Mas- 
ter : " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one the 
least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto 
me ; enter thou into the joy of your Lord." See 
them as they rise with countenances illumined 
with happiness, enter into the realm of joy and 
peace, and say, is the contrast too great between 
the hell and the heaven which man makes for 
himself? 

Sell is selfishness, heaven is love. 

Every man makes his own hell or his own 
heaven. He is the judge, and he goes to either as 
he decides on earth. 

Were it not for the mercy of God, and the love 
of man, there would be no release from the 
woes of hell. But the spirits in bliss cannot be 
supremely happy while those whom they love are 
suffering in hell. 

These spirits of the just, these angels of heaven, 



210 AETAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

are all earnest workers for the happiness of others, 
and they strive not only with man on earth, but 
with those in hell ; working with all the earnest- 
ness of their being, to bring the sinful soul to 
repentance ; encouraging him in doubt, aiding 
him in despair, praying for him in his agony and 
remorse, working on with love and hope, never 
giving up until the suffering soul has raised its 
prayer to God for help, and through trouble, pain, 
and travail of spirit has been forgiven and received 
into that blest abode, where there is more joy 
over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety 
and nine just (innocent) persons that need no 
repentance. 

MIRACLES. 

"Webster defines a miracle as "an effect or 
event contrary to the established constitution and 
course of things, — a deviation from the known 
laws of nature." 

"Natural laws," he says, "are the agencies 
which carry on the processes of creation." Any 
thing supernatural is "beyond or exceeding the 
powers of nature." 

A deviation changes nothing. It is not a new 
law, or the overturning of an old law. It is 
merely a change of direction for a special pur- 
pose, a swerving from the regular and generally 
observed course. 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 211 

A miracle, then, may not be a supernatural act 
or event; it may only be a deviation from the 
usual exhibition of the laws of nature, not a 
change in the law itself ; these deviations being an 
apparent change to us only, it being in the power 
of that God who formed the laws of nature, to 
govern and control each individual creation of his 
hands. These laws are wholly under his control, 
subject to his command. He is their Master, not 
they his. He can use them for his purposes, and 
to further his designs ; and in the Bible we have 
the record of such deviations, made, as we believe, 
for sufficient cause. 

Man makes a machine to do certain work. The 
action of this machine is governed by certain laws 
applicable to itself as a machine, but these do not 
affect the maker. He may alter, improve, or add 
other powers, without violating any law to which 
he is responsible. The machine may have certain 
hidden powers, only brought into action by emer- 
gencies. It may work on for years in its regular 
course. Suddenly the emergency arises; and a 
new action takes place, provided for when it was 
made, but not used, and perhaps to lookers-on 
unknown, until this time. Is this new action a 
miracle? No. It is only a deviation from its 
usual action, brought out by the exigencies of the 
occasion. 



212 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

God makes the laws of nature the "agencies 
which carry on the processes of creation." It is 
evident there was a time when these laws, as 
applied to this earth, were few as compared with 
the present. 

The first plant created was an addition to the 
previously existing creation, and required a new 
law to sustain and keep it in being ; and this law 
was an addition to the pre-existing laws of nature. 
The first fish, bird, animal, man, were each and 
all new creations, requiring new laws for each to 
regulate their continuance. Thus were the laws 
formed. A part of these were the laws of repro- 
duction, each of its kind. When they took effect, 
and the young plant sprang from the seed, 
although a part of the law, it was a new appear- 
ance. Each beast, bird, man, was formed mature, 
and the first-born of each was a deviation because 
none such had previously appeared. Apparently 
these deviations were miracles, but in reality they 
were only new exhibitions of laws already 
established. 

Nature is a machine made by God, and governed 
by his laws. God is not only the Maker, but the 
Master, of those laws. New, strange, and unex- 
pected powers have been hidden for a time, but 
acted when the necessities of the new creations 
required it. Man finds in the water, in the air, in 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 213 

the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, new powers 
and new forms of life, all miracles in the sense of 
being new and before-undiscovered products, but 
really only deviations from the old results. The 
miracles of the Bible may be but " deviations 
from the known laws of nature," " events contrary 
to the established course of things." 

In the ignorance and superstition of the times 
of Moses, God could appeal only to the senses of 
the Hebrew people or the Egyptian nation. Mir- 
acle, so-called, was the only power which would 
work upon the fears of the Egyptians, cause them 
to release the Hebrews from bondage, and em- 
bolden them to take their liberty. 

Is it not presumptuous for man to speak of mir- 
acles as impossible ? They may be beyond what 
he has known of nature's laws. A hundred years 
ago, what did man know of the laws of electri- 
city ? Are all the various exhibitions of its powers 
and uses now discovered, miracles? They are 
additions to, or deviations from, the then known 
laws. 

Are the powers of steam miracles, because only 
a hundred years ago its only known use was to 
make the kettle sing? Is the telephone a miracle 
because it has developed new laws of acoustics ? 

God's " laws of nature " are expansive, pro- 
gressive. If we find these laws of nature have 



214 



enlarged, and are still enlarging, is it not natural 
to suppose, as a man advances, and other powers 
now unknown become his, that these laws shall 
continue to enlarge, and new laws be discovered, 
so that these deviations may become known as 
laws, and miracles become common facts, as these 
other deviations from the laws we have mentioned 
have become facts ? 

A miracle was received by the Jew with 
unquestioned faith. It was the direct action of 
Jehovah. In former times it had been performed 
generally in some exigency of their national life ; 
at times in its early history, in punishment for 
disobedience of his law ; but generally for their 
rescue or protection, and to spread the terror of 
his name among the nations. Their birth as 
a nation had been accomplished by the most stu- 
pendous miracles. The rule of Moses had been 
enforced by other miracles. Their support for 
forty years in the wilderness had been a daily mir- 
acle. Their occupation of Canaan had been 
accompanied by frequent miracles ; and in times of 
trouble, through all their early history, the hand 
of Jehovah had been opened to help whenever 
they sincerely trusted in him. To eliminate the 
miraculous element from the Hebrew and Chris- 
tian Scriptures, would be to leave the covers only 
in the hands of the operator. 



OTHER CHBISTIAN SUBJECTS. 215 

That the Hebrews claimed miraculous help in 
many events which to us appear to have been 
accomplished by natural laws, or as the result of 
good generalship, does not affect the fact that the 
largest number of these occurrences could have 
been accomplished by no other than supernatural 
power. The whole history of the nation avows it, 
and no disbelief or scoff of sceptics can shake the 
accumulative evidence recorded in the entire 
history of the nation. 

Man has been given and has wielded an appar- 
ently supernatural power, a power above and 
controlling the laws of nature. 

This power emanating from God, — which is 
called in the Bible the Holy Spirit, — embodying 
the purpose, force, energy, power, the enlightening 
wisdom and love of God, this supernatural power, 
has at times been given into the hands of man. 
It was used in its energy and force by Moses and 
by Elijah; in its enlightening power, by Isaiah 
and other prophets ; and for beneficent purposes, 
and in the exhibition of the love of God, by Jesus 
the Christ and his disciples. This spiritual power 
we believe to be still reserved for the use of man, 
when in singleness of purpose, and self-devoted- 
ness, and in communion with God, he shall ask 
the aid of the Deity in restoring health and 
strength to suffering humanity. 



216 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

The power of mind over matter has been long 
known and acknowledged. What is that but the 
power of the spiritual controlling the natural ? 

The same power is seen in the various well- 
authenticated cases of the cure of disease by faith, 
by prayer, by the laying-on of hands, and by the 
Christian Science apostles. All are but exhibi- 
tions of the control of the natural by the spiritual, 
of the natural laws by the spiritual laws known in 
the Bible as the Holy Spirit. 

TMF CRUCIFIXION. 

Jesus of Nazareth was chosen from among God's 
children, consecrated and enlightened by the Holy 
Spirit to reveal the being and character of God, 
and his purposes or intentions with respect to the 
being, position, and future life of man. 

Other sons of God had been chosen before the 
Christ, for certain work. Abraham, with whom 
the first or personal contract or covenant was made ; 
Moses, to whom the Deity was revealed as Jeho- 
vah, and through whom the Hebrew contract was 
made ; the prophets, through whom God revealed 
his will and purposes with regard to the future of 
individuals and nations on this earth, — all were 
chosen sons of God, each selected and enlightened 
by the Holy Spirit sufficiently to carry out the 
will and purposes of the Deity. 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 217 

While the contract made with Abraham was 
personal to himself, his family and descendants, 
and that made with the Hebrews was national, 
confined wholly to that nation, and earthly in 
its character, the revelation and contract made 
through Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, the 
Messiah, the Son of God, chosen for and conse- 
crated to that purpose, was wholly spiritual, fill- 
ing out the former revelations, and surpassing 
them in all things, as heaven surpasses earth. 
This contract or covenant is open to all mankind. 
Jew and Gentile, high and low, rich and poor, all 
are called upon to accept the revelations of the 
Christ, and join in the contract which he offers to 
all, not of earthly power, riches, or grandeur, but 
of heavenly riches and eternal life. 

It was not until Jesus of Nazareth had received 
the recognition of God, and the consecration and 
enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, that he began 
to teach; and he then taught, not as Jesus of 
Nazareth, but as the Christ, the Son of God, 
chosen and anointed for that purpose. He at all 
times confessed that his knowledge and his power 
came entirely from God, that of himself he could 
do nothing. While calling himself the Son of 
God, he took particular pains to acknowledge 
himself the Son of man, that all mankind were 
his brothers and with him sons of God; and 



218 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

spoke of God as " our Father," and in addressing 
others called him ''-your Father." In no way did 
Jesus the Christ differ from other men, except in 
being selected and chosen from among men to fill 
the office of the Christ. 

It was as the Christ, and only as the Christ, 
that he taught. It was the enlightening power of 
the Holy Spirit which gave him the certainty 
of knowledge, and caused him to teach with 
authority. It is that only which causes us to 
have faith in his teachings, which gives a founda- 
tion for our belief. Take away this certainty, this 
authority, and of what value are his teachings? 
They are merely the guesses, the vain imaginings, 
of a poor illiterate peasant of Galilee, a place noted 
for its poverty and the ignorance of its people ; and 
they have no force or power to enlighten or aid 
man. Take away this authority, and we are with- 
out God as well as without Christ in the world. 

All spiritual knowledge comes directly from the 
Christ : it can be obtained from no other source. 
Men believe in the voice of nature, in the love 
and fatherhood of God, in the brotherhood of 
man, in the kingdom of heaven, and in the future 
life, because of the certainty of his teachings; and 
that certainty comes only from the actual knowl- 
edge received from God by the Christ, the chosen 
and anointed Son of God. 



OTHEB CHBISTIAN SUBJECTS. 219 

Christ's work was initiatory : he enunciated the 
doctrines we have mentioned, and left them for 
his disciples to spread abroad throughout the 
world, when they should become aware of their 
power and value. 

Christ's teachings were new ; they were strange. 
The people did not comprehend them. Even his 
disciples failed to understand their meaning. 
Notwithstanding his constant teachings, the king- 
dom of heaven they still thought was to be an 
earthly reign of Christ. Even to the last they 
disputed upon the positions they were to hold in 
this new kingdom ; and after his resurrection, 
they ask him, " Lord, wilt thou at this time restore 
again the kingdom to Israel?" They disbelieved 
when he spoke of his death. Christ was to live 
and reign forever : he could not die. When they 
actually saw him expire on the cross, their faith 
failed: they fled to their homes dismaj^ed and 
disheartened. He could not have been the Christ, 
or he would not have died. 

The continuance of life after the decease of 
the body was believed in by the Pharisees. The 
Sadducees disbelieved it; the common people gen- 
erally gave it but little thought. Those who 
believed in the doctrine, did so with fear and 
trembling. There was no certainty ; it was the 
mere guess-work of those who desired and longed 



220 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

for it, or the faith was a relic borrowed from 
Persia. 

Moses knew nothing of a life hereafter, and 
never taught it. All his laws are connected with 
this life, and the rewards and punishments are 
wholly human and earthly. 

This question, however, troubled other minds 
besides the Jews. Many among the heathen 
nations were making the inquiry, " If a man die, 
shall he live again ? " 

There was a belief among the heathen of a 
shadowy state of existence after death, but no 
certainty ; and who could answer the question ? 
Neither the gods of Greece or Rome, nor did the 
Jehovah of the Jews answer it. Men were grop- 
ing blindly for a solution of the question. Many 
of the thoughtful minds of all nations were seek- 
ing light. Some had boldly declared their belief 
in a future state, and others as boldly denied the 
possibility of it. 

If there was such a life beyond, did it belong 
to all mankind as their birthright ? or was it, as 
some believed, reserved for the few who, by reason 
of great and benevolent work for man, received the 
blessing of the gods and the gift of immortality? 
Could it be secured by assenting to certain forms 
of belief, or by following certain religious obser- 
vances ? Could it be obtained by mortifying the 



OTHEB CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 221 

flesh, and living a life of self-denial ? No one knew ; 
and no one could answer with any certainty the 
question, " What shall I do to obtain eternal life ? " 

Christ came : he revealed the certainty of life 
eternal, and showed how each and all might 
obtain it. He claimed to teach from personal 
knowledge, that he uttered the words of God; 
that he was the messenger of God. His teachings 
bore the impress of sincerity and the stamp of 
authority. Yet how could he know ? Were men 
to believe because of his assertions? Could he 
have been taught of God? Was such a thing 
possible ? His miracles gave evidence of a power 
beyond that of man. Did that power come from 
God ? or was he a deceiver, and did he obtain his 
power from the Evil One, as was charged by the 
Pharisees? 

Christ's revelation, his teaching, needed con- 
firmation, and this could only be obtained by 
ocular demonstration. The dead must arise again 
from the grave. 

This had been done in a partial manner. The 
daughter of Jairus had been raised from the dead ; 
the son of the woman of Nain had been brought 
to life after he had been prepared for burial ; and, 
more wonderful than all, Lazarus, after lying four 
days in the tomb, had been raised, and returned to 
his sorrowing sisters in life and health. But here 



222 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

might be collusion. What proof was there of his 
death ? Had not Jesus himself said, " He is not 
dead, but sleepeth " ? 

Christ from the first saw the necessity of this 
sacrifice, — saw that he must die in order that he 
might show the resurrection from the dead. He 
foretold it, but his disciples did not believe him. 
Yet he constantly pressed towards it : it was to be 
the crowning act of his life, the seal of his ministry, 
the great proof of his sincerity and truth, the con- 
firmation of all his teaching. He claimed to have 
the power to lay down his life, and to take it again. 
He was free to act : would he do it ? As the time 
approached, he naturally shrank from the infamy, 
disgrace, and pain of the cross; he prayed that 
the cup might pass from him, that some other way 
might be opened to accomplish the same result. 
But in vain: if he would accomplish the work 
given him to do, he must die for men, that, 
through his death and resurrection, they might 
learn that the soul is immortal, that the death of 
the body has no effect on the spiritual being 
inhabiting that body. 

It was necessary that his death should be public : 
all the Jewish world should be cognizant of it. 
The Roman rulers must be aware of it ; it must 
be so public and notorious that there could be no 
dispute respecting it. 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 223 

Christ's miracles had made him the centre of 
observation. Wherever he came, the sick and 
infirm were brought unto him, and he healed 
them. He entered Jerusalem accompanied by 
thousands. He was greeted as a king; palm- 
branches were spread before him, and shouts of 
welcome filled the air. But in a few days he was 
seized, and, after a mock trial, was condemned, 
and executed on the cross. 

This execution was public ; and owing to the 
preceding publicity of his life, acts, and teaching, 
the circumstances of his entry into Jerusalem, and 
the excitement at his trial, it was known to all 
Jerusalem, and to the thousands that were present 
from all parts of the world attending the great 
festival. 

Apparently Christ's work on earth was ended. 
He who claimed to be the Son of God had been 
put to death, and that was the end. His disciples 
were dispersed, and all their hopes destroyed. 

Had this been the end indeed, what would have 
become of the teachings of Christ? What would 
have been his influence on the earth ? We proba- 
bly should never have heard of him, or of his teach- 
ings. His few ignorant disciples, frightened and 
disheartened, would have gone each to his own 
home, and resumed his former occupation. Christ's 



224 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

teachings would have been forgotten, and himself 
would have passed into oblivion. His principal 
work had been done in an obscure portion of Pales- 
tine, a Roman province or dependency, among a 
people uncultivated and despised by both Grecian 
and Roman. The rumors which might have 
reached the more civilized portion of the world, of 
wonderful works performed by a man whom some 
called a prophet and others a deceiver, would have 
died away. He left no writings ; he had formed no 
school of philosophy ; his teaching had been oral, 
misunderstood or disbelieved ; and his death ended 
both his teaching and his influence. Possibly some 
tales of his miracles and tragic death might have 
come down to us, in some myth or fabulous story ; 
but his life and teaching would have been lost to 
the world. 

But we, — mankind in general, — what would 
we be ? Ignorant savages, or possibly worshippers 
of the thousand gods of Greece and Rome, perhaps 
farther advanced in civilization, probably sunk in 
the darkness and crime of the Canaanites, with no 
knowledge of God, no immortal life, and no desire 
for either. 

In these days, liberal writers place great stress 
upon the voice of nature ; that nature leads man 
to a knowledge of God. But who taught us that 
there was a God who was the Lord of nature? 



OTHEE CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 225 

that he was the maker and sustainer of the uni- 
verse ? Who but the Christ ? 

Previous to the Christ, there were gods without 
number, but no God, — no Deity supreme. The 
national god of the Jews, Jehovah, was, in our 
view, the greatest and most powerful of them all, 
but not so acknowledged by the world at that 
time. He was, in fact, unknown, except to this 
small and almost uncivilized nation ; while the 
gods of Rome ruled the world. Nature was ruled 
by a host of gods ; but the God of the Christ — 
the fountain of all our religious knowledge — was 
unknown and unthought of. 

How has this death of the Christ, and his 
resurrection, been covered and hid under the 
creeds and theologies of man, as were the laws 
of Moses under the traditions of the elders ! 

This crowning act of his life, this open way to 
immortality, has been turned into the sacrifice of 
a god, who took upon himself the sins of mankind, 
and expiated their sins by his death upon the cross. 
If he was God, then his death was impossible, and 
the whole thing was a farce acted to deceive. If 
he was a man, then he could not take upon himself 
the sins of others, and his death did not relieve 
them from the punishment belonging to sin. 
Besides, if it could, where was the greatness of 
the sacrifice ? Are there not men now, to-day, 



226 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

thousands of them, who, if they could relieve the 
world from sin by so doing, would gladly undergo 
the same suffering and death ? 

The death and resurrection of Christ was the 
beginning of the gospel ; all else was preliminary. 
Without this there would have been no Christ : he 
would never have been heard of. His disciples 
would never have preached a dead Christ, and his 
doctrines would have died with him. 

The cross, the instrument of his death, became 
the symbol of life, not of death. The living Christ, 
Christ arisen, was the rallying cry of the apostles, 
the burden of their teaching, and their joyful song. 

All the writers of the New Testament unite in 
their testimony to his death , and there is no point 
so strongly and fully proved as this in the life of 
Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God. 

All the apostles testify to the crucifixion and 
death of Christ. 

Matthew says, " And when they had crucified 
him, they parted his garments among them, casting 
lots" (xxvii. 35). 

" Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and 
yielded up his spirit " (xxvii. 50). 

Mark's testimony is, "And they crucified him, 
and parted his garments among them, casting lots 
upon them what each should take. And it was 
the third hour, and they crucified him " (xv. 24). 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 227 

" And Jesus uttered a loud voice, and gave up 
the ghost " (XV. 37). 

Luke testifies, " And when they came unto the 
place which is called the skull, there they crucified 
him " (xxiii. 33). 

"And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, 
he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my 
spirit; and having said this, he gave up the 
ghost" (xxiii. 46). 

And the testimony of John is to the same 
effect : " They took Jesus, therefore, and he went 
out bearing the cross for himself, into the place 
called the place of a skull, which is called in 
Hebrew Golgotha; where they crucified him" 
(xix. 17, 18). 

" When Jesus, therefore, had received the vine- 
gar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his 
head, and gave up his spirit" (xix. 30). 

Peter charges the Jews, without their dissent : 
" Him, being delivered up by the determinate 
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand 
of lawless men did crucify and slay." (Acts ii. 23.) 

"Let all the house of Israel therefore know 
assuredly, that God hath made him both Lord 
and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified." (Acts 
ii. 36.) 

And Paul frequently speaks of it. " We preach 
Christ crucified." (1 Cor. i. 23.) 



228 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

"For I determined not to know any thing 
among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified." 
(1 Cor. ii. 2.) 

" Which none of the rulers of this world know- 
eth ; for, had they known it, they would not have 
crucified the Lord of glory." (1 Cor. ii. 8.) 

"For he was crucified through weakness, yet 
he liveth through the power of God." (2 Cor. 
xiii. 4.) 

" O foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you, 
before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set 
forth crucified?" (Gal. iii. 1.) 

" For Christ sent me, not to baptize, but to 
preach the gospel : not in wisdom of words, lest 
the cross of Christ should be made void. For the 
word of the cross is to them that are perishing 
foolishness : but unto us which are being saved it 
is the power of God. For it is written, — 

" I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, 

" And the prudence of the prudent will I reject. 

"Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? 
Where is the disputer of this world ? Hath not 
God made foolish the wisdom of the world ? For 
seeing that in the wisdom of God the world 
through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's 
good pleasure through the foolishness of the 
preaching, to save them that believe. Seeing 
that Jews ask for signs, and Greeks seek after 



OTEEB CHBISTIAN SUBJECTS. 229 

wisdom : but we preacli Christ crucified, unto 
Jews a stumbling-block, and unto Gentiles fool- 
ishness ; but unto them that are called, both Jews 
and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the 
wisdom of God." (1 Cor. i. 17-25.) 

TJTi: EESJJEEECTION. 

But the great and grand event in the life of 
Christ is his resurrection ; and this again was 
almost as public as his execution had been. 

His crucifixion had not taken place in a corner, 
but in the full public gaze. At his death there 
were rumors abroad, that he had said he would 
arise again from the tomb. So prominent had 
they become, that the chief priests and Pharisees, 
believing there would be an attempt by his disci- 
ples to obtain his body, applied to the governor 
for a guard to watch the tomb in which he had 
been laid. At their request, a small body of 
Roman soldiers were placed on guard, after the 
entrance to the tomb had been sealed. They 
testified to the appearance of the angel, and the 
opening of the tomb. The women and Peter and 
John saw the empty grave ; and all the apostles, 
together with many believers beside, testified to 
his re-appearance, and to his teaching among them 
for a period of forty days, and of his final ascen- 
sion. 



230 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

The excitement, indignation, and sorrow caused 
by his crucifixion had not subsided, before these 
tales of his return to life were spread abroad ; and 
soon the men who had been his disciples appeared, 
and fearlessly proclaimed the doctrine of the 
resurrection from the dead, and eternal life, based 
upon this resurrection of Christ from the dead, 
of which they were witnesses. These statements 
they made publicly in Jerusalem, in the very city 
where he had been put to death ; and they charged 
the Jewish people with being criminally cognizant 
of, and consenting to, his death. And this charge 
was not denied. On the contrary, it was acknowl- 
edged; and the conviction of its truth was so 
strong, that the multitude cried out to the apos- 
tles, " Men and brethren, what shall we do ? " 

The testimony to the resurrection of Christ is 
very full and direct, and cannot be doubted, 
except we believe every writer to be a falsifier. 

Christ repeatedly foretold his resurrection. This 
was so well known, that after his crucifixion 
" the chief priests and the Pharisees were gatli- 
ered together unto Pilate saying, Sir, we remem- 
ber that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive. 
After three days I rise again. Command there- 
fore that the sepulchre be made sure until the 
third day, lest haply his disciples come and steal 
him away, and say unto the people, He is risen 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 231 

from the dead ; and the last error will be worse 
than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a 
guard : go your way, make it as sure as ye can. 
So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, 
sealing the stone, the guard being with them." 

'' Now late on the sabbath day, as it began to 
dawn towards the first day of the week, came 
Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the 
sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earth- 
quake ; for an angel of the Lord descended from 
heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and 
sat upon it. His appearance was as lightning, 
and his raiment white as snow : and for fear of 
him the watchers did quake, and became as dead 
men. 

" And the angel answered and said unto the 
women, Fear not ye : for I know that ye seek 
Jesus, which hath been crucified. He is not here ; 
for he is risen, even as he said. Come, see the 
place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and 
tell his disciples. He is risen from the dead ; and 
lo, he goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall 
ye see him : lo, I have told you. And they de- 
parted quickly from the tomb with fear and great 
joy, and ran to bring his disciples word. And 
behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And 
they came and took hold of his feet, and wor- 
shipped him. Then saith Jesus unto them, Fear 



232 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

not: go tell my brethren that they depart into 
Galilee, and there shall they see me. 

" Now, while they were going, behold, some of 
the guard came into the city, and told unto the 
chief priests all the things that were come to pass. 
And when they were assembled with the elders, 
and had taken counsel, they gave large money 
unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye. His disciples 
came by night, and stole him away while we slept. 
And if this come to the governor's ears, we will 
persuade him, and rid you of care. So they took 
the money, and did as they were taught; and this 
saying was spread abroad among the Jews, and 
continueth until this day." (Matt, xxviii. 1-15.) 

This account of the resurrection, given by Mat- 
thew, is sustained by Mark, Luke, and John, who 
agree substantially with the statement here given ; 
varying somewhat, as would naturally be the case, 
in the minor details, and adding other incidents 
which came to their knowledge. They also agree 
in stating that Clirist met with the disciples 
after his resurrection, and that he taught them 
that they might understand the Scriptures. He 
showed them from the Scriptures, " that the Christ 
should suffer, and rise again from the dead the 
third day; and that repentance and remission of 
sins should be preached in his name unto all the 
nations." 



OTHEB CHBISTIAN SUBJECTS. 233 

The apostles testify to the resurrection of Jesus 
the Christ from the dead, and make it the founda- 
tion of their teaching, the proof of the truth of 
their gospel of good tidings. 

The eleven disciples, after the ascension of 
Christ, met to choose a disciple in the place o± 
Judas Iscariot. " Of the men therefore which 
have companied with us all the time that the 
Lord Jesus went in and went out among us, be- 
ginning from the baptism of John, unto the day 
that he was received up from us, of these must one 
become a witness with us of his resurrection." 
(Acts i. 22, 23.) Not of his life, or his death, but 
of his resurrection. 

Peter says, speaking of Jesus the Christ, — 

" Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs 
of death : because it was not possible that he 
should be holden of it." (Acts ii. 24.) 

" The priests and the captain of the temple and 
the Sadducees came upon them, being sore trou- 
bled because they taught the people, and pro- 
claimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead." 
(Acts iv. 2.) 

" And with great power gave the apostles their 
witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." 
(Acts iv. 33.) 

" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant 



234 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope 
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead." (1 Pet. i. 3.) 

Paul gives frequent and powerful testimony to 
the resurrection of Jesus the Christ from the dead. 

" And certain also of the Epicurean and Stoic 
philosophers encountered him. And some said, 
What would this babbler say? Other some, He 
seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: 
because he preached Jesus and the resurrection," 
(Acts xvii. 18.) 

" Now, when they heard of the resurrection of 
the dead, some mocked ; but others said, We will 
hear thee concerning this yet again." (Acts xvii. 
32.) 

" Who was declared to be the Son of God with 
power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the 
resurrection of the dead ; even Jesus Christ our 
Lord." (Rom. i. 4.) 

" For if we have become united with him by 
the likeness of his death, we shall be also by the 
likeness of his resurrection." (Rom. vi. 5.) 

The foundation of all the preaching of the 
apostles is well given in Paul's argument to the 
Corinthians, upon the resurrection of the dead : — 

" Now, if Christ is preached that he hath been 
raised from the dead, how say some among you 
that there is no resurrection of the dead ? But if 



OTHER CHBISTIAN SUBJECTS. 235 

there is no resurrection of the dead, neither hath 
Christ been raised ; and if Christ hath not been 
raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also 
is vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of 
God : because we witnessed of God that he raised 
up Christ; whom he raised not up, if so be that 
the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not 
raised, neither hath Christ been raised; and if 
Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain ; ye 
are yet in your sins." (1 Cor. xv. 12-17.) 

In his address to the Athenians, Paul says, 
"The times of ignorance therefore God over- 
looked ; but now he commandeth men that they 
should all everywhere repent, inasmuch as he hath 
appointed a day in the which he will judge the 
world in righteousness by the man whom he hath 
ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto 
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." 
(Acts xvii. 31.) 

"But this I confess unto thee, that after the way 
which they call a sect, so serve I the God of our 
fathers, believing all things which are according 
to the law, and which are written in the prophets : 
having hope toward God, which these also them- 
selves look for, that there shall be a resurrection 
both of the just and unjust." (Acts xxiv. 14, 15.) 

When before Felix, Paul declares his innocence 
of all wrong-doing, " except it be for this one 



236 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

voice, . . . Touching the resurrection of the dead I 
am called in question before you this day." Festus 
reports the matter to King Agrippa : " When the 
accusers stood up, they brought no charge of such 
evil things as I supposed ; but had certain ques- 
tions against him of their own religion, and of one 
Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be 
alive." And before King Agrippa he says, "Where- 
fore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto 
the heavenly vision : but declared both to them of 
Damascus first, and at Jerusalem, and throughout 
all the country of Judaea, and also to the Gentiles, 
that they should repent and turn to God, doing 
works worthy of repentance. . . . Having, there- 
fore, obtained the help that is from God, I stand 
unto this day testifying both to small and great, 
saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses 
did say should come, how that the Christ must 
suffer, and how that he first by the resurrection of 
the dead should proclaim light both to the people 
and to the Gentiles." (Acts xxvi. 19-23.) 

" Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be 
an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 
which he promised afore by his prophets in the 
holy scriptures, concerning his Son, who was 
born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 
who was declared to be the Son of God with 
power according to the spirit of holiness, by the 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 237 

resurrection of the dead, even Jesus Christ our 
Lord." (Rom. i. 1-4.) 

"Wherefore let us cease to speak of the first 
principles of Christ, and press on unto perfection, 
not laying again a foundation of repentance from 
dead works, and faith toward God, even the teach- 
ing of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of 
resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment ; 
and this will we do if God permit." (Heb. vi. 
1-3.) 

THE DISCIPLES. 

We have endeavored to make plain the beliefs 
and expectations of the Jews respecting their 
Christ ; that, as the son of their god Jehovah, he 
should rule over Israel, and through them over 
the whole earth, in the same manner that Rome at 
that time governed the civilized world ; and this 
rule or government they called the rule, govern- 
ment, or kingdom of heaven. 

They believed that this Christ would wield the 
whole power of Jehovah his father ; and as, in 
former contests of Jehovah with the gods of 
Egypt, their national god had conquered, so now 
they had full confidence in his ability to over- 
power the gods of Rome, and thus obtain supreme 
rule. 

As a nation, their hopes, fears, expectations, 
were all confined to this earth. With the excep- 



238 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

tion of the small sect of Pharisees, they had no 
knowledge of or belief in a future state of 
being. 

They had never shown any spirituality. While 
there had been prophets and teachers of a high 
moral tone, they as a nation had never responded 
to their teachings. Before their captivity they 
had worshipped the gods of the nations around 
them, to the neglect of Jehovah ; since their cap- 
tivity, taught by the lessons of the past as exhib- 
ited to them by Ezra, Nehemiah, and others, they 
had not departed from the outward worship of 
Jehovah, but theirs were blind offerings, made 
according to their rituals, with the expectation 
that the blood of lambs and other animals would 
wash away sin. 

This was the people from among whom Jesus 
selected his disciples ; they were from the common 
people, of about the same grade of life as was 
Jesus himself. They had the ideas, wishes, expec- 
tations, and prejudices of their nation. Perhaps 
Jesus could not, if he had tried, have obtained 
disciples from the higher or more learned classes. 
He did not come with the regal power, pomp, and 
magnificence which they expected from the Christ. 
They looked upon him with scorn and contempt, 
and upon his followers as a few poor, deluded, 
ignorant peasants and fishermen ; just the sort of 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 239 

men who would be likely to be attracted by an 
impostor. 

And these disciples, — were they more enlight- 
ened than their countrymen ? Did they look upon 
the Christ in a light differing from the rest of their 
Jewish race ? 

As we carefully read the Gospels, we must ac- 
knowledge that we find no evidence of a clearer 
estimate of the Christ or of his work. 

Christ spoke of God as our Father, the Father 
of the whole human race. His disciples believed 
that Jehovah was the father of the Christ; but 
when he spoke of him as " our Father," and " your 
Father," they did not understand him. The^ were 
not the children of Jehovah ; they had never 
thought of such a thing, and they could not 
believe it ; it was, in fact, blasphemy to entertain 
such a thought. 

Neither did they believe that the heathen 
nations were children of Jehovah : in fact, they 
believed that all of them were his enemies, wor- 
shippers of other gods, whom he would willingly 
destroy ; he hated Romans more especially ; would 
that the time had come to sweep them from the 
face of the earth, or at any rate make them trib- 
utary to Israel. 

The sayings of the Christ were incomprehensi- 
ble. He taught that the kingdom of heaven wa& 



240 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

at hand. Yes, they believed that. Was not he 
the Christ, the Anointed, he who was to estab- 
lish this kingdom ? Were they not awaiting with 
impatience his movements? Why did he not 
proclaim himself king, put on his royal robes, 
gather the nation together, seize and destroy the 
Komans, and, by the aid of Jehovah, overpower 
all opposition, and govern the world ? 

The Christ revealed an immortal life. This 
they believed. The Christ was immortal. He par- 
took of the nature of his Father Jehovah. He 
would live forever, and his reign would be without 
end. This immortality, however, was to be on 
this earth. As, in later days. Ponce de Leon 
sought the waters of youth that he might bathe 
therein and obtain immortal youth, so the disci- 
ples believed that the Christ had received from 
his Father that water and that bread which would 
give to those who partook thereof immortal life. 
He was to live forever on this earth, and they 
desired to live with him ; and they awaited with 
eagerness the time when he should show unto them 
the way of eternal life, and give to them of that 
well-spring of immortality. 

We do not find that the disciples were spirit- 
ually enlightened by the teachings of the Christ. 
The Sermon on the Mount fell on dull ears ; even 
the simplest of his parables required explanation. 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS, 241 

Pre-occupied as were their minds by the prophe- 
cies, traditions, and expectations of their nation, 
which had been instilled into their minds all their 
lives, they could not and did not understand his 
teachings. Why should they ? They were Jews, 
not above the average of their race. All that 
they heard was colored by the medium of their 
habit of thought ; and every saying of Jesus was 
qualified by their belief in his earthly kingdom 
and reign. 

Only a few days previous to his crucifixion, 
they disputed with each other as to the position 
or rank they should hold in his kingdom, the 
establishment of which, they now felt, must be 
near at hand. 

Apparently, nothing but the death of the Christ 
could awaken them from this dream of royalty. 
In their belief, the Christ could not die. If Jesus 
of Nazareth should die, that would be proof to 
them, and to the whole Jewish world, that he was 
not the Christ. No matter what his power over 
sickness and death had been , if he died, his cause 
was crushed, annihilated. He could not be the 
real Christ, but an impostor. 

To the surprise and consternation of the disci- 
ples, the Christ died on the cross. His death was 
made doubly sure by the thrust of the spear in his 
heart. 



242 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

In dismay, his disciples fled ; the laughing- 
stock, as they thought, of the whole nation. The 
man whom they had followed, and believed in as 
the Christ, was proved to be an impostor. Their 
position as chosen followers of Jesus made them 
now unpleasantly conspicuous ; in silence and 
despair they slunk away, to hide their sorrow and 
shame from all mankind. 

Thus ended, as they thought, the life of one 
whom they had loved and revered because of his 
loving and humane disposition, his kindness, 
gentleness, and forgiving spirit. Added to their 
sorrow for his loss, was their disappointment. 
Jesus, it was proved, was not the Christ, and they 
and their nation must look for another. The 
glorious reign of their great king was still in the 
future, and their hopes were blasted and gone. 
Nothing remained but to hide their friend in the 
tomb, and then return to their old trades and 
occupations. 

At this time, had these disciples any thing to 
teach ? Nothing. Not a single truth uttered by 
the Christ had been spiritually discerned. His 
personal traits, and the expectation of future 
greatness, had kept them together, and had been 
their bond of union : but his death severed the 
tie ; he and his teachings were dead together. 

The preachings of both John and Jesus were 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS, 243 

illusive ; they had either fraudulently or mistakenly 
proclaimed an untruth. The kingdom of heaven 
had not come, neither was it at hand. Eternal 
life was a myth ; its apostle had been slain ; the 
water and the bread of life had been powerless. 
Their friend and teacher, and, as they had believed, 
their Messiah, had perished on the cross ; and the 
visions of glory, of power, of eternal life, had 
faded and gone ; and this was the end. 

Who among his followers would now attempt 
to preach a dead Christ, and he a malefactor ? 
What had they to teach? Jesus of Nazareth 
could not be the Messiah: the Christ could not 
die ; yet this man was dead. Of what conse- 
quence were his teachings, his revelations ? They 
were the mere vagaries of a disordered mind, of a 
religious enthusiast. He was dead, and his teach- 
ings and so-called revelations would die with 
him. No man would trouble himself to repeat or 
publish them to the world ; they would sink into 
oblivion ; and the disgrace of his death would 
attach to his life, and be visited on his disciples. 

TRE APOSTLES. 

Apparently, the teachings of Jesus had come to 
an end with his life. The Jews had proved that 
he was an impostor, by depriving him of life. 

The Christ had foretold his resurrection. His 



244 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

disciples had given no heed to this statement, 
because they did not believe in his death. His 
enemies, however, remembered his saying ; and, 
thinking his disciples might attempt to take away 
the body at night, they caused a watch of Roman 
soldiery to be set about the tomb in which his 
body had been placed. 

In the early morning, these soldiers appeared in 
the city, thoroughly frightened, and told a con- 
fused story of an earthquake that had removed 
the stone from the mouth of the tomb, and of 
angels whose presence had caused them to flee in 
terror. 

Some of the women, who had gone to prepare 
the body for burial, sought Peter and John with 
the news that the body of Jesus had disappeared ; 
that in the tomb they had seen angels, who in- 
formed them that the Christ had arisen, and that 
he would meet them in Galilee. 

This news again brought the disciples together, 
filled with wonder and hope. Would he now take 
possession of his kingdom ? Would he now restore 
Israel ? These were the questions which came to 
their lips. 

We have no record of the teachings of the forty 
days, during which he explained to his disciples 
the spiritual bearing of his teachings. He spoke 
to them of the Father ; of the spiritual kingdom 



OTHEB CHBISTIAN SUBJECTS. 245 

of heaven, or the rule of God in the heart ; of the 
eternal life of the spirit, freed from the prison of 
the mortal body ; and of the way to obtain immor- 
tality. 

The resurrection of the Christ was the birth of 
Christianity; without it, there would have been 
no record of the Christ or of his teachings. No 
contemporary writer or historian mentions him ; 
not until the preaching of the apostles had made 
his name and doctrines known, does he become a 
historical character. 

The disciples or learners, now changed to apos- 
tles or teachers, had the greatest message to pro- 
claim ever given to mankind : " the glad tidings 
of great joy, which should be to all people." 

With the resurrection of the Christ from the 
dead, as a proof of the spiritual existence of man 
after the death of the body, the foundation on 
which all their teaching rested, they proclaimed 
God, not as Jehovah the Jewish god, but as " our 
Father," the father and lover of all mankind. 
They proclaimed a kingdom, or rule, of heaven, 
here and now, in the heart of every one who loves 
righteousness. 

They proclaimed immortality to be the gift of 
God to every man who believed in and followed 
the teachings of the Christ, doing the will of the 
Father. 



246 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

The question of the ages, " If a man die, shall 
he live again ? " was for the first time answered by 
the resurrection of the Christ. With this gospel 
of the love of God and good-will to man, these 
apostles of freedom went forth in the glad con- 
sciousness of the importance of their mission, into 
all the world, baptizing in the name of a God of 
love, a risen Christ, and a helping and enlightening 
Spirit. 

Let us remember that these apostles were human 
beings, each having and keeping his own individ- 
uality. Spiritually they were transformed, as the 
Christian religion changes every one who embraces 
it. That transformation is not a change of person- 
ality, but a change of character, a change in the 
object of their lives. They realize that this life is 
secondary ; that the life beyond is the one for 
which they should strive. And in the case of the 
apostles, it was not only their work, their duty, an 
obligation laid upon them by Christ ; but it was 
their joy. They longed to proclaim to the world 
the good tidings of which they were the chosen 
messengers ; '' the good tidings of great joy, which 
should be to all people ; '' the tidings of a Saviour, 
who should save the world from sin (not from the 
punishment of sin, because sin carries its own 
punishment, but from sin itself), and from "the 
wages of sin, which is death." 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 247 

With the exception of Paul, these apostles had 
been companions of Christ ; had heard his teach- 
ings, seen his miracles, caught some of his ten- 
derness, and imbibed of his spirit. They were 
enlightened by the Holy Ghost, to the extent 
necessary for them to accomplish the work they 
had undertaken ; and the gift of tongues, a neces- 
sary gift at the time, indicated to each one the 
country in which he was to teach. Their general 
knowledge outside of their particular work was 
not enlarged, nor their beliefs on other matters 
enlightened. 

Peter, in his first address to the Jews, on the 
day of Pentecost, gives, in a few words, the true 
apostles' creed. He says, — 

" Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God 
unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs, 
which God did in the midst of you, even as you 
yourselves know ; him, being delivered up by the 
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, 
ye, by the hands of lawless men, did crucify and 
slay : whom God raised up, having loosed the 
pangs of death, because it was not possible that 
he should be holden by it. . . . This Jesus did 
Gfod raise up^ whereof we are all witnesses. 
Being, therefore, by the right hand of God 
exalted, and having received of the Father the 
promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath poured forth 



248 ABTASf SEMITES AND JEWS, 

this which ye see and hear. Let all the house of 
Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath 
made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom 
ye crucified." 

This confession of faith, or statement of belief, 
is made by Peter as the representative of all the 
apostles, and without dissent from any one. 

It is noticeable that Peter gives the credit of 
all Christ's miracles, of his resurrection, of the 
gift of the Holy Ghost, and of his position, to 
God. Christ was the instrument, but God the 
ruling power. 

The confession of faith contains a charge 
against the Jews, of having crucified and slain 
Jesus of Nazareth, their Messiah. 

" Now, when they heard this, they were pricked 
in their hearts, and said unto Peter and the rest 
of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do ? And 
Peter said unto them. Repent ye, and be baptized 
every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, 
unto the remission of your sins, and ye shall re- 
ceive the Holy Ghost," or spiritual enlightenment. 

Let us carefully examine these requirements. 
First, a belief in the life, miracles, teachings, 
death, and resurrection of the man Jesus of 
Nazareth. Second, repentance. From what? 
From the sin they had been convicted of, namely, 
being accessory to the murder of Jesus Christ, 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 249 

who they were now convinced was their Messiah, 
promised of old. And they were now called upon 
to repent of that sin, and acknowledge their new 
belief in Jesus as the Christ. Third, the public 
act of baptism, a rite familiar to them, and signi- 
fying the washing-away of old beliefs, previous to 
the adoption of new; and this repentance and 
acknowledgment must be public ; upon doing this 
their sins should be remitted, or forgiven, and they 
should receive the enlightenment of the Holy 
Spirit. And the record states, "and there were 
added unto them in that day about three thousand 
souls ; and they continued steadfastly in the apos- 
tles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of 
bread, and prayers." 

In this first work of the apostles, the Jews ac- 
knowledged the truth of the statement respecting 
Jesus, and the call of Jesus is repeated; Repent. 
We find that they were called to repent of the sins 
of which they were aware. No claim is made of 
the universal sinfulness of man through the fall 
of Adam ; total depravity was unknown ; nor was 
Christ's death mentioned as an atonement for the 
sins of mankind. Christ is spoken of as a man, 
and even the doctrines of Christ were unmen- 
tioned. The only creed subscribed to by these 
converts was the assent given to the apostles' 
creed mentioned, by their acceptance of the rite 
of baptism. 



250 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

All, then, that these first Christians found re- 
quired of them, was to acknowledge Jesus as the 
Christ, that he died and rose again, repent of their 
sins, and give public notice of their new belief by 
the outward act of baptism. 

When Philip joined the eunuch of Queen 
Candace, and the eunuch inquired of Philip re- 
specting the prophecies, " Philip opened his mouth, 
and beginning from this scripture preached unto 
him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they 
came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said. 
Behold, here is water ; what doth hinder me to be 
baptized ? And he baptized him ; and the eunuch 
went on his way rejoicing." 

He preached unto him Jesus, nothing else ; no 
tales of Adam and Eve, and the Devil, and the 
fall of man ; no total depravity, no five points of 
Calvinism, — simply Jesus. 

Paul and Silas at Macedonia, in answer to the 
jailer's question, " What must I do to be saved ? " 
answer, " Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou 
shalt be saved, thou and thy house. And they 
spake the word of the Lord unto him, with all 
that were in his house. And he took them the 
same hour of the night, and washed their 
stripes ; and was baptized, he and all his, imme- 
diately." 

To believe in the Lord Jesus, we find, was to 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 251 

believe in something more than a name or an 
existence : they spake the word of the Lord unto 
them ; and their baptism was an acknowledgment 
of belief, and an agreement to live in accordance 
with the teachings of Christ. 

At Thessalonica, " Paul, as his custom was, 
went in unto them, and for three sabbath days 
reasoned with them from the Scriptures, opening 
and alleging that it behoved the Christ to suffer, 
and to rise again from the dead ; and that this 
Jesus, whom, said he, I proclaim unto you, is the 
Christ." 

Christ's work, we have stated, was initiatory. 
It was now the duty of his disciples to spread 
abroad the " good tidings of great joy which 
should be to all people ; " and the cross, the 
emblem of his death and resurrection, was the 
foundation of their teaching. Christ and him 
crucified was their subject. 

" Greater things than these shall ye do," said 
Christ to his disciples. To them was given the 
work which he had inaugurated. His claim of 
being instructed by God, that he delivered only 
what he had received of him, that he had been so 
enlightened by the Holy Spirit, that what he taught 
was with the certainty, the authority, of knowl- 
edge, was now proved by his resurrection from 
the dead. The great object of his death, which 



262 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

was to prove the existence of the spirit, the soul, 
the man himself, after the death of the body, was 
complete and unquestioned. And upon the fact of 
the resurrection of Christ from the dead, the apos- 
tles founded all their teaching ; they refer to it 
continually, as the foundation of their faith, the 
rock on which the whole superstructure rests. 

The event of greatest significance in the life of 
Christ, and of the greatest importance to mankind, 
was not his baptism, not his crucifixion and death, 
but his resurrection from the dead. While his 
crucifixion and death was the seal of his min- 
istry, the completion of his work, his resurrection 
was the commencement of his gospel of good 
tidings. 

Christ's life and teachings, his revelations of 
God, of man, of their relationship, of the kingdom 
of heaven, and of the future life, were all seeds 
sown which should bear fruit in the teachings of 
his disciples. 

What could give life to his teachings ? What 
could induce his disciples to go forth and promul- 
gate this doctrine of the kingdom of heaven, and 
of eternal life, which had been the prominent 
points in his teaching ? Nothing, apparently, but 
what did take place. Christ's resurrection from 
the dead was the only thing which could give life 
and vitality to his doctrines. 



OTHER CHBI8TIAN SUBJECTS. 253 

We have no account of what he taught after his 
resurrection. It is evident that the event itself, 
and what his disciples learned from him, led to an 
entire change in their views and purposes. His 
former sayings received new significance ; and the 
enlightenment of the Holy Spirit aided them in 
understanding his teachings, and in giving to these 
ignorant and timid disciples courage to go into all 
the world, preaching the good tidings of the resur- 
rection and eternal life. 

German critical writers claim that Jesus of 
Nazareth taught nothing new ; that he merely 
concentrated and put into a new form old truths, 
thus giving them new life ; that he usurped the 
title of the Christ, which he knew did not belong to 
him, and thereafter lived a life of deceit ; in short, 
that this teacher of righteousness, whose precepts 
reach the springs of action in the heart, was him- 
self a daily violater of the truth ; that his disciples 
followed his example, and falsified the records of 
his life ; and that the apostles, including Paul, did 
the same in their writings. 

When we put into a short sentence the result 
of their criticisms, their utter inconsistency con- 
tradicts their foul assertions. 
. Except in a few scattered sentences in the 
Hebrew Scriptures, where, before the Christ, can 
we find taught the Fatherhood of God, and the 



254 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

brotherhood of man ? Who taught any thing of 
the kind ? Who ever taught the spiritual kingdom 
of heaven ? Who taught of the life eternal, and 
of the way for man to obtain that great gift of 
God? Who but the Christ? Are these old 
truths put into a new form ? If so, where can 
these old truths be found ? 

Did Jesus of Nazareth usurp a title which did 
not belong to him ? 

In the Four Gospels, we have the picture of an 
exceptional and perfect man ; in all points the 
portrait is complete. Painted by four different 
artists, each, in all material points, has given us 
the same picture. Each, however, gives touches 
here and there, according to his own individuality, 
which, being brought together, make one complete 
whole. What can be added to the portrait to 
make it more complete? or what can we take 
from it that will improve it ? 

How beautiful ! how grand ! how majestic ! how 
sweet! how meek! how humble! What power! 
what determination ! what courage ! what purity ! 
what truth ! what love ! what compassion ! what 
fortitude ! what sorrow ! 

In all history, where is another character that 
stands out so clear, so full, so well proportioned, 
so distinct, so complete ? And what a life, from 
beginning to end ! each step depending on the 



OTHER CHBISTIAN SUBJECTS. 255 

preceding ; the advance regular, steady, majestic, 
to its culmination. 

Who in those days could have imagined such a 
person, could have delineated such a life, or enun- 
ciated such doctrines? And how impossible for 
four men each to have falsely drawn the same 
character ! The fact that we have such a record, 
is proof positive that such a life was lived, and 
such doctrines were taught. To have imagined 
such a being, such a life, and such doctrines, was 
simply impossible ; they were out of the power of 
man to conceive. 

There is no accounting for the doctrines, ex- 
cept that they came from God, and were delivered 
to the human race by a man authorized and com- 
missioned by God so to do. No man, unless he 
speaks as God's messenger, and by his authority, 
can open unto us the kingdom of heaven, or show 
us the way to life eternal. Must not such a man 
have been the Christ ? 

Can the man who uttered the Sermon on the 
Mount, who claimed to be the way, the truth, and 
the life, be a deceiver, a falsifier ? By their fruits 
ye shall know them. The fruits of the teachings 
of the Christ are a knowledge of spiritual things, 
which no man had before ; namely, the love and 
Fatherhood of God; the brotherhood of man; 
the kingdom of heaven begun on earth ; the 



256 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

eternal life, and the way to obtain the same. 
These are the fruits. Judge ye of the tree. Is it 
good, or bad ? Can a corrupt tree bring forth good 
fruit ? 

TRB SECOND COMING OF THE CHRIST. 

" When they therefore were come together, they 
asked of him, saying : Lord, wilt thou at this time 
restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he 
said unto them. It is not for you to know the 
times or the seasons, which the Father hath put 
in his own power ; but ye shall receive power after 
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you ; and ye 
shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and 
in all Judsea, and in Samaria, and unto the utter- 
most parts of the earth. And when he had spoken 
these things, while they beheld, he was taken up ; 
and a cloud received him out of their sight. And 
while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he 
went up, behold two men stood by them in white 
apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why 
stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus 
which is taken up from you into heaven shall so 
come in like manner as ye have seen him go into 
heaven." (Acts i. 6-11.) 

It is evident that the apostles believed and 
taught the second coming of Christ. Some among 
them believed that at his second coming he would 
" establish again the kingdom of Israel." The 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 257 

Christ, as they believed, was to reign on earth ; and 
why should he come again, unless to establish his 
kingdom and commence his reign ? They expected 
this second coming would be early ; it was immi- 
nent ; and they called on the disciples to " abide in 
him, that, when he shall appear, we may have con- 
fidence, and not be ashamed before him at his 
coming." (1 John ii. 28.) 

Paul speaks of the Christians at Corinth, as 
"waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." In his first Epistle to the Thessalonians, 
he says : " I pray God, your whole spirit and soul 
and body be preserved blameless unto the coming 
of our Lord Jesus Christ." In his second Epistle, 
he beseeches them "by the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 

James exhorts the Christians to "be patient, 
therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. 
. . . Stablish your hearts, for the coming of the 
Lord draweth nigh." 

Paul's belief in the second coming was different 
in its nature from that of the other apostles. In 
his first Epistle to the Thessalonians, he states it 
in these words ; "But I would not have you to 
be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are 
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which 
have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died 
and rose again, even so them also which sleep in 



258 ARTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say 
unto you by the word of the Lord : that we, which 
are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, 
shall not prevent them which are asleep ; for the 
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with 
the trumpet of God ; and the dead in Christ shall 
rise first ; then we which are alive and remain 
shall be caught up together with them in the 
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall 
we ever be with the Lord." 

This belief in the second appearance of Christ 
is apparent in their preaching ; they expected it to 
take place in that generation, and this belief was 
built apparently on the words of Christ. He 
frequently spoke of his coming again. " The Son 
of man shall come in the glory of his Father." 
He " Cometh at such an hour as ye think not." 

In speaking of John, he says, "If I will that 
he tarry till I come, what is that to you ? " He 
says, " In an hour that ye think not, the Son of 
man cometh." " Watch therefore, for ye know 
not on what day your Lord cometh." "Watch 
therefore, for ye know not the day, nor the hour." 
" Verily, I say unto you. There be some standing 
here, which shall not taste of death, till they see 
the Son of man coming in his kingdom." 

Paul writes to the Thessalonians, "For your- 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 259 

selves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so 
Cometh as a thief in the night." 

The whole import of these words is, that he will 
come again, and that soon; yet the apostles and 
Christians of that day, and even down to the pres- 
ent time, have waited in vain for his coming in 
person. Then, what is meant by the words of the 
Christ ? Were his words untrue ? Did he prom- 
ise what he was unable to perform ? Are we still 
to await his coming, or has he come ? 

It is the belief of many Christians, that he is yet 
to come, and that the time draws nigh. But how, 
and with what body, shall he come? Shall he 
appear in Jerusalem ? In Rome ? In England ? In 
America? Who in these sceptical days will vouch 
for him, and who will believe ? Shall he be a Jew ? 
What Christian would acknowledge him ? Shall 
he come a German, a Frenchman, an English- 
man, an American? Shall he be a carpenter, a 
merchant, a mechanic, a scholar? Shall he be 
born again in the flesh, and grow up from a child 
to manhood among you without recognition until 
touched by the enlightening power of the Spirit ? 
Even then who will receive him? Or shall he, as 
Paul believed, " descend from heaven with a shout, 
with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
trump of God " ? And if he should thus appear, 
unless the occasion should be the final day of 



260 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

earth, except those who saw it, who would believe 
the tale ? 

The repeated statements of the Christ are that 
he should come in that generation ; and the angels 
at his ascension say that he should come in the 
same quiet way in which he ascended, — he " shall 
so come in like manner as ye have seen him go 
into heaven." As a spiritual body, spiritually. 

All these promises were fulfilled, both in the 
time and in the circumstances under which they 
were promised ; and they are still in process, and 
will so continue until the end of the world. 

Christ's second coming was to be with power, 
but quietly, even as he ascended into heaven, 
without noise or violence. It was to come as a 
thief in the night, without observation, at such an 
hour as ye think not of; and in that generation, 
some of those standing around him should see 
that day. 

They did see that day. All the conditions were 
fulfilled in the result of Peter's preaching on the 
Day of Pentecost, when " about three thousand " 
acknowledged their belief in Jesus as the Christ ; 
a larger number of disciples, probably, than Christ 
had in the whole course of his first coming. The 
day came with power ; it came quietly, without 
noise or violence ; and in that generation. Even 
the apostles did not recognize it ; it came without 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 261 

observation ; it was the dawn of a glorious day, 
continued and enlarged in the increasing number 
of believers ; a day that under all circumstances, 
and against all impediments, has continued to 
grow brighter and brighter, and more and more 
glorious, and will so continue until " the kingdoms 
of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
Lord and of his Christ." 

So, too, his promises, that where two or three 
are met together in his name, there he is in the 
midst of them, and the promise to be with them 
alway, even unto the end of the world, are daily 
and hourly fulfilled. In all Christian countries, 
and in all meetings of Christians, everywhere, 
Christ is with them in their thought and conver- 
sation. The books, the newspapers, the literature 
of Christian countries, directly and indirectly, 
speak of him ; his influence surrounds us as an 
atmosphere ; he permeates our thoughts and 
actions, consciously or unconsciously. Two or 
three cannot meet together in his name, but he 
is in the midst of them, in the influence of his 
life, his teachings and death, and, above all, in his 
resurrection. Not only in God do we live and 
move and have our being, but in the Christ we 
live and move and have our being as Christians. 
He is our life. His personal re-appearance we can 
see is impossible, or, if possible, would be without 



262 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

effect ; he would again be despised and rejected 
of men. Spiritually he comes again in the holy 
lives and conversations of his true disciples, and 
wherever and whenever his gospel is made known. 
His real material second coming is in the re-pro- 
mulgation of his revelation, stripped of the incrus- 
tation of hatred, superstition, bigotry, and dogma, 
which fifteen hundred years of spiritual ignorance 
have cumulated upon it. 

TMU CHRIST AN ENIGMA. 

Throughout the New Testament, we see the 
constant non-conceptions or the misconceptions 
of the Christ's teachings, not only by the Jews 
generally, but also by his disciples. Jesus spake 
to them in the language of the Spirit, which to 
them, until their spiritual enlightenment, was 
unintelligible. Their idea of the " kingdom of 
God," or the "kingdom of heaven," was earthly; 
his was spiritual. Their idea of God was as 
Jehovah, their national deity ; his was as the 
Father of the whole human race. They believed 
in their God as a person, like unto a man, but 
more powerful. The Christ proclaimed him to be 
a spirit. They worshipped their God in burnt 
offerings of animals, and fragrant woods and 
spices. The Christ taught that God should be 
worshipped in spirit and truth. 



OTHER CHBISTIAN SUBJECTS. 263 

The Jews believed that Abraham had talked 
familiarly with God, and had even argued with 
him to save the doomed cities; and that Jacob 
had wrestled all day with God. This belief had 
led them to look upon Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
as men above the common type, and, for that 
reason, the favored of God. Moses was not so 
highly favored : he was permitted to see only his 
" hinder part " as he passed by. 

This personality of Jehovah was so strongly 
implanted, that the statement of the Christ — that 
God is a spirit — passed unheeded. 

When the Christ spoke of God as our Father, 
the idea was incomprehensible even to the disci- 
ples. We see the dazed way in which they say 
to him, *' Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." 
Who or what the Father was, they did not yet 
comprehend ; and Jesus' answer to this request 
must have still more puzzled them. 

It was the same in his frequent conversations 
with the Jews. They believed in Jehovah, and 
that his son, the conquering Messiah, would come 
to earth ; but they never thought of calling them- 
selves sons of Jehovah. The thought even was 
sacrilege. They had Abraham for their father; 
that was distinction enough. The terms "my 
Father," "your Father," were so distasteful to 
the Jews, that the Christ often changed them 



264 AETAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

to " the Father," as less offensive, more especially 
in his frequent conversations with the priests and 
scribes at Jerusalem; but without effect. The 
Jewish mind could not get beyond Jehovah ; he 
was their God, and the Christ would be his son ; 
and he would come with such evidences of power 
and might, and such credentials, as could not be 
mistaken. As for this Jesus of Nazareth, who 
pretended to be the Messiah, all knew of his par- 
entage, and whence he came. What were his 
miracles, compared with those which would accom- 
pany the appearance of the real Christ, the son of 
the almighty Jehovah? The claim of Jesus was 
preposterous and blasphemous. 

With these opposite ideas and habits of thought, 
the Christ's claims and teachings were enigmas 
to both his disciples and the Jews. He was 
speaking for the future instruction of his disciples 
in all agesj until they obtain the spiritual key, 
none can understand him. 

See his conversation with Nicodemus upon 
being born again. His claim, "No man hath 
ascended u;p into heaven, but he that came down 
from heaven, even the Son of man which is in 
heaven," to them was a paradox. The "living 
water " that he could give the woman of Samaria, 
which should be " a well of water springing up 
into everlasting life," to her was still a myth. 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 265 

The daring claim made, that he was the Son of 
Jehovah ; the statement that " my Father worketh 
hitherto, and I work ; " and the long argument 
he presents to substantiate his claim as he spake 
now of Jehovah, and now of the Father, — must 
have greatly puzzled them. 

So, too, in Capernaum he says, " I am the living 
bread which came down from heaven. If any 
man eat of this bread, he shall live forever ; and 
the bread I will give is my flesh, which I will give 
for the life of the world." Is it any wonder that 
"the Jews therefore strove among themselves, 
saying. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 
And many of his disciples said. This is an hard 
saying ; who can hear it?" And the record states, 
" From that time many of his disciples went back, 
and walked no more with him." 

At another time, he says, " My doctrine is not 
mine, but his that sent me. If any man shall do 
his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether 
it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." His 
sayings so puzzled the people, that they said, 
"Thou hast a devil." Again he cries unto them, 
" He that believeth on me, . . . out of his belly 
shall flow rivers of living water." He calls him- 
self " the light of the world ; he that foUoweth me 
shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the 
light of life." He says, "The Father that sent 



266 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

me beareth witness of me. Then said they unto 
him, Where is thy Father?" To this query he 
vouchsafes no answer but the assertion, "Ye 
neither know me, nor my Father." 

He holds a long argument with the Jews, almost 
acrimonious in its character, every statement of 
which would to them be a riddle. " I go my way ; 
and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. 
Whither I go, ye cannot come." Then said the 
Jews, Will he kill himself? He goes on: "Ye 
are from beneath ; I am from above. Ye are of 
this world ; I am not of this world. ... If ye 
believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. 
They say unto him. Who art thou ? Jesus saith 
unto them, Even the same that I said unto you 
from the beginning." He further says, " I speak 
that which I have seen with my Father, and ye 
do that which ye have seen with your father. . . . 
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of 
your father ye will do. . . . He that is of God 
heareth God's words ; ye therefore hear them not, 
because ye are not of God. Then answered the 
Jews, and said unto him. Say we not well, that 
thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?" He 
then proceeds, changing the subject: "If a man 
keep my saying, he shall never see death." The 
Jews answer, "Now we know that thou hast a 
devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets. . . . 



OTHEB CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 267 

Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which 
is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom 
makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, It is my 
Father that honoreth me ; of whom ye say that he 
is your God ; yet ye have not known him ; but I 
know him, and if I should say I know him not, 
I shall be a liar like unto you. . . . Your father 
Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and 
was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou 
art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen 
Abraham ? Jesus said unto them. Verily, verily, 
I say unto you. Before Abraham was, I am ; " a 
statement in their view perfectly astounding. 

The Christ at another time utters this paradox : 
" For judgment I am come into this world ; that 
they which see not, might see ; and that they 
which see might be made blind. And some of 
the Pharisees which were with him heard these 
words, and said unto him. Are we blind also ? 
Jesus said unto them. If ye were blind, ye should 
have no sin ; but now ye say. We see ; therefore 
your sin remaineth." He then likens himself to 
the Good Shepherd, and claims to have the power 
" of laying down his life, and of taking it again." 
And " many of them said. He hath a devil, and is 
mad." Again, he claims the power of giving 
eternal life to those who believe on him ; and that 
he and his Father were one. "Then the Jews 



268 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

took up stones to stone him." Again, speaking 
of his death, Jesus says, " And I, if I be lifted 
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. 
The people answered him, We have heard, out 
of the law, that Christ abideth forever ; and how 
sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up ? 
Who is this Son of man ? " We see their utter 
want of conception of his teachings. This ques- 
tion, like many others, he does not answer ; but 
advises them to walk in the light. 

We see all through, that his disciples under- 
stood him as little as did the Jews. In his last 
talk with them, he says, " A little while, and ye 
shall not see me ; and again ' a little while, and 
ye shall see me ; because I go to my Father ; " 
and his disciples say, " What is this that he saith, 
a little while ? we cannot tell what he saith." He 
finally tells them, however, " These things have I 
spoken to you in proverbs , but the time cometh 
when I shall no more speak to you in proverbs, 
but I shall show you plainly of the Father." 

TJ7E HOLY SPIRIT Ilf THE NINETEENTn CENTURY. 

This enlightening and spiritual power and 
influence, known to us as the Holy Spirit, has 
been exhibited in various ways, at different 
periods of the world's history, in accordance with 
the necessities of the times and occasions, — by 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 269 

Moses, in exhibitions of its power over nature's 
laws in certain directions; by Joshua, and occa- 
sionally by others of the Hebrew heroes and 
soldiers, and by Elijah and Elisha, in other direc- 
tions ; by the prophets, in the revelation of future 
events, and in their higher and purer revelations 
of God ; and by the Christ, in his full revelation of 
the Deity, the good tidings of great joy. 

This Holy Spirit was also given in a modified 
form to the apostles. Dull and unspiritual as they 
were as disciples, — learners, — after the Christ's 
resurrection, he no longer addressed them "in 
proverbs," but, as he had promised, spake to 
them "plainly of the Father." After his ascen- 
sion, they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. 
Their minds having been enlightened by the 
Christ respecting the object and character of his 
mission, they could go back in thought to his teach- 
ings ; and, under the new light breaking in upon 
them, the meaning and intent of his words dawned 
upon them. What was before dark and obscure 
became bright with the light of the Spirit. Their 
minds were enlarged by this spiritual birth ; and, 
as the extent and grandeur of their mission grew 
upon them, they became new men, filled with the 
Holy Ghost and with power. 

Men have looked upon this power, as its results 
have been recorded in the Bible, as if it were a 



270 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

strange and exceptional power; something used 
in Bible times, for particular purposes, but lost 
and unknown to man at the present time. This 
is a mistake. At no time since the world began 
(unless in early Aryan days) has this spiritual 
power been so fully developed and so freely be- 
stowed as in this nineteenth century, especially 
during the past fifty years. In that time, man, by 
the aid of this spiritual power, has boldly grasped 
many natural laws, and forced them to obey his 
will. What were the so-called miracles of Moses, 
to the miracles created by the before-hidden powers 
of steam and electricity? What the power wielded 
by Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha, to those exhibited 
on every railroad, steamship, and factory? The 
power exerted by mind over matter is every- 
where seen and acknowledged. Let us give the 
proper name to it, and say, the power of the spir- 
itual over the natural. This power was known 
to, and was acknowledged by, the early Aryas.- 
Let us do the same. 

The idea that the apostles, because of their 
companionship with Jesus, were specially enlight- 
ened and pre-eminently fitted to teach the gospel 
of good tidings, is false. For their day and gen- 
eration, they were well fitted, because they were 
the only ones that had, and could impart, the good 
news ; but to-day not a minister of the gospel but 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 271 

has better means and opportunities of judging of 
the teachings of the Christ, than had any one 
of the apostles. 

The Spirit enlarges not only the soul, that is, 
the religious part of our nature, but it also 
expands the intellect. We have four different 
sources of knowledge respecting the teachings of 
the Christ. They together give us a more com- 
plete record than had either of the apostles of his 
own personal knowledge. Our whole religious 
natures have been enlarged, and our spiritual 
training enables us to recognize more fully than 
did the apostles the spiritual character and pur- 
pose of his mission. 

In the dark days of spiritual death, men, in 
their ignorance and superstition passing by and 
ignoring the teachings of the author and finisher 
of our faith, formulated creeds and theologies 
based upon misconceptions and wilful miscon- 
structions of portions of the Hebrew scriptures, 
modified or enlarged by utterances of one or other 
of the apostles ; thus making the kingdom of God of 
none effect by their traditions. 

To-day the missionary who will go forth in the 
name and as the disciple of his Master, to preach 
the simple faith of the Christ, will go better pre- 
pared and equipped, mentally and spiritually, to 
spread the gospel of good tidings, than were the 



272 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

apostles of old for the work before them ; and 
they will promulgate a doctrine nearly as little 
known in Christian countries, so called, as it is 
in heathen lands. 

Ye so-called Christians, awake from your leth- 
argy and sin. Dig up the discarded teachings of 
your Christ. Cleanse them from the pollutions 
and stains of fifteen hundred years of ignorance, 
bigotry, superstition, and crime ; and come forth 
as believers in the Christ in whose name you 
claim to live, and spread abroad in the names of 
a loving Father, of an anointed and living Christ, 
and an ever-present and enlightening Holy Spirit, 
the good tidings of the kingdom of heaven, im- 
mortal life, and the way. Thus shall the Christ 
again appear; and his second coming shall be with 
greater power, and more glorious, than the first. 

FALSE GHBISTIANITY. 

4 In the course of a few hundred years after his 
death, a great change had taken place in the 
simple religion of the Christ. Adopted as the 
national religion of Rome, it took on forms and 
ceremonies incompatible with the teachings of its 
founder. It grew into a religious tyranny, claim- 
ing authority over the conscience of man in this 
world, and power over his future well-being in 
the world to come. 



OTHEB CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 273 

The monotheism taught by the Christ gradually 
changed ; the Christ himself was robbed of his 
humanity, and was clothed by the priestly hier- 
archy with the powers of the Deity. The holy 
spirit of God was personified; and the two, as 
gods, were added to the being of the Deity, the 
three being made one godhead ; the Deity being 
thus transformed into a three-one, a triune God, 
a contradiction of terms which the mind of man 
cannot comprehend, whose incomprehensibility is 
hidden under the mask of a " holy mystery." 

This change in the constitution and being of 
the Infinite was accompanied by a corresponding 
change in man's idea of God ; and the " Father " was 
hidden from view, by the greater prominence given 
to the Son as the lover and Saviour of mankind. 

In the breaking-up of the great Roman Empire, 
and the continuous wars which for hundreds of 
j^ears convulsed Europe and Western Asia, the 
Christian religion rapidly declined, and ignorance 
and superstition took its place. These wars, with 
the frequent irruptions of the Goths, Vandals, 
and other Northern hordes, and the inroads of the 
Huns, with the later uprising and spread of the 
Saracenic and Arabian power, in the course of a 
thousand years almost entirely destroyed the 
Christian religion; and the Aryan race, for the 
third time, slept the sleep of ignorance. 



274 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

During this time the Church, as it was called, 
concentrated its power, and enlarged its scope. 
Working upon the superstitions of men, in the 
general ignorance which prevailed, it wielded a 
power over their lives and consciences before 
unknown. Outside of the monasteries and the 
dignitaries of the Christian Church, there were 
few, even of the nobles, who could read or write ; 
many of the priests were equally ignorant with 
the people. The simple teachings of the Christ 
had, even in its earlier days, been contaminated 
by the additions of heathen rites and ceremonies, 
and hidden by numerous theological tests and 
requirements ; to these had now been added the 
debasing use of power obtained over the fears and 
superstitions of men, by bold claims of spiritual 
control over their souls, by reason of apostolic 
descent from the Apostle Peter, to whom, it was 
claimed, the keys of heaven were intrusted by the 
Christ, and through which descent, the Pope, or 
highest officer of the Church, had obtained the 
authority of deciding the future destiny of the 
soul, in accordance with his individual will. 

This power was not only wielded by the Pope, 
but the most ignorant priest of the time claimed 
by reason of his office, and the power bestowed 
upon him by the Pope, the same control over the 
future of the nominal Christians about him. 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 275 

In this long period of intellectual and spiritual 
decline in Europe, many of the arts and sciences 
of Aryan civilization were lost. The nations de- 
clined into barbarism, but little above that of 
savages ; violence and crime took the place of law 
and order ; every man's hand was against his 
neighbors, and might made right. 

In the mean time Asia advanced rapidly in civ- 
ilization and wealth. Arabia became the deposi- 
tory of the learning and knowledge of the world ; 
and for the second time the Semite received the 
Aryan civilization, which it retained for five or 
six hundred years, when it was again placed in 
the hands of the Aryas. 

It was during this, a period well called the 
"dark ages," that there arose in Europe a false 
Christianity : a theology that cannot be equalled 
in any heathen country in the superstitious 
ferocity of its teachings, in the inhumanity of the 
God of its worship, and in the savage cruelty of 
the God it fears, but pretends not to worship. 

Believing the Bible to be one book written by 
authority of God, and all parts of equal weight 
and value, they took from the initial book of the 
worn-out and cast-away Hebrew Scriptures an 
Eastern symbolical story of the spiritual advance 
of Adam and Eve. The Deity had planted a 
garden in Eden, in which he placed every thing 



276 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

for the use and pleasure of man, at the same time 
placing in one corner thereof two remarkable 
trees. The fruit of one would give unto the eater 
spiritual glory; the fruit of the other would 
confer eternal youth. 

In this garden God placed Adam and Eve to 
take care of, and eat, the fruit thereof. 

For a time these trees were unseen ; but when 
noticed, Adam and Eve were afraid to partake of 
the fruit, for fear they were poisonous. At this 
point of the story, Wisdom appears in the form of 
a serpent, and advises Eve to eat of the fruit 
of the tree of knowledge, saying to her that she 
need not be afraid ; that the fruit was not poison- 
ous, and would not injure her : on the contrary, 
it would be exhilarating, healthy, invigorating, 
and strengthening to the body, would enlighten 
the understanding, and give clear mental vision. 

Thus advised, tempted by the beauty of the 
fruit and by her desire to obtain greater knowl- 
edge, she, with her husband, partook of the fruit, 
with the result foretold by Wisdom. Their spir- 
itual eyes were opened. They saw that many of 
their former practices, under the new light they 
had received, were evil^ and conscience called 
upon them to reform and do better. The con- 
tinual eating of the fruit gave them a knowledge 
oi better ways; and iiow, too, they see the 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 277 

tree of eternal youth, and long to partake thereof, 
but are prevented from so doing except under 
certain conditions imposed by the Deity. For 
what they have already done in partaking of the 
fruit of the tree of knowledge, God speaks in 
approbation, and likens them to himself in their 
ability to choose between good and evil. He will 
not permit them to partake of the fruit of the tree 
of life, except as the reward for services rendered. 

This beautiful little Eastern apologue fell into 
the hands of men Avithout imagination, and igno- 
rant of Oriental symbolism ; and, instead of look- 
ing for its hidden meaning, they seized upon it as 
a matter of fact ; perverted it from its plain teach- 
ing by changing the serpent from a symbol of 
wisdom into Satan, a god of evil ; made the fruit 
of the tree of knowledge poisonous; ignored the 
fact that it was recorded as giving the knowledge 
of good as well as evil, and made the results of 
eating of it as wholly evil, — a source of degrada- 
tion and sin ; turned the curse of the earth for 
Adam's sake, Ms benefit, into a curse upon Adam 
himself; ignored the praise of God, and shut out 
the tree of eternal youth to all mankind. 

In addition, they claimed that Adam, in eating 
of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, had trans- 
gressed a law of God ; and that, in so doing, he 
had fallen from a state of innocence into sin ; and 



278 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

that this sin of Adam was entailed as a disease on 
all his race. 

This transformation of the symbolical tale of 
spiritual advance, into a story of degradation, sin, 
and shame, shutting out man forever from par- 
taking of the fruit of the tree of eternal youth, 
led to views of the Creator necessarily degrading. 
Either the Deity, after all his long and careful 
work in preparing this earth for the use and 
enjoyment of his children, had unexpectedly come 
in contact with another god, of whose existence 
he was not previously aware, who proved to be 
his superior in power, and who took forcible pos- 
session of his children ; or, knowing of the exist- 
ence of this powerful god, he carelessly left Adam 
and Eve, the children of his love, without warning 
them of their danger, or teaching them how to 
escape the peril which threatened them. 

Both of these conceptions of God were too 
belittling, and they advanced a bolder but more 
cruel hypothesis ; namely, that God created Satan 
as his servant, and the minister of his wrath, at 
the same time creating hell, filled with eternal fire 
and innumerable instruments of torture, with devils 
without number to aid in tormenting his children 
who had disobeyed, or who should disobey, his will. 

This hypothesis they made the basis of a the- 
ology the most cruel, the most horrible, ever in- 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 279 

vented by the imagination of man or devil. In it 
the Deity is represented as placing Adam and 
Eve, and all their innocent descendants, forever 
in the hands of Satan and his imps, to remain for- 
ever in torment, because of Adam's sin. What 
a tremendous punishment for a trivial offence ! 
And this, not as a just punishment for wrong- 
doing, but to gratify the vengeance and hate of 
God. What blasphemy ! 

For four thousand years or more, they claimed 
this was done ; and the Deity continually gave 
life to children, only that they might be turned 
over to the tormentors. At the end of that 
period, the Christ, the Son of God, took compas- 
sion on the sufferings of mankind, and earnestly 
desired to save them from the certain and endless 
doom that awaited them; and, at his earnest 
request, the Father consented that he might take 
upon himself the form and nature of man, and 
undergo in his person the full punishment for the 
sins of the world, thereby relieving man from the 
doom before placed upon him by God. This was 
done, and the Christ suffered on the cross for the 
sins of all mankind. 

Instead, however, of the sacrifice of the Christ 
freeing mankind from their sufferings, the only 
effect was to relieve the few who, born in a coun- 
try where the sacrifice of the Christ was known, 



280 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

should accept that sacrifice as an atonement for 
their sins, and thus be saved from the hands of 
Satan. Thus was the Christ cheated out of the 
fruits of his sacrifice ; and where one is saved by 
his act, a thousand are plunged into hell through 
ignorance of the work done by the Christ. 

According to this theology, the Deity, instead 
of being our Father, is made a vengeful and hate- 
ful being, too horrible to look at, and withal de- 
ceitful in withholding from the Christ the reward 
for his suffering and pain. 

This foul satire on the religion of the Christ, 
originating in the foul imaginations of men, de- 
graded by ignorance and superstition, received 
from the Komish Church, and indorsed by the 
Protestant Church, was formed into a mathemati- 
cal system by Calvin. In this form it was forced 
upon man by burning, torture, and death, and 
became so firmly fixed, that to-day almost the 
entire Christian body intellectually or supersti- 
tiously assent to the theology; while in their 
hearts thousands disbelieve, and show in their 
happy lives and conversation their entire disbelief, 
ill this fiendish theology. 

The great achievement of false Christianity was 
the placing of reason under a ban. The triune 
God was a great mystery, incomprehensible to 
finite minds, and beyond the power of reason 



OTHER CEBISTIAN SUBJECTS. 281 

to explain. Christians were, consequently, re- 
quired to believe it as belonging to the infinite. 

It is no wonder that in the dark ages, those 
days of carnage and murder, of might against 
right, those days of all manner of iniquity, — that 
their religion should be of the same nature : it 
could not be otherwise. It was impossible for the 
religion of the Christ to live in such blackness of 
ignorance, superstition, and despair. But, provi- 
dentially, the record of the Christ's teaching was 
not lost : in monasteries, the work of pious men 
saved the records ; these we now have, and by 
them we can judge this detestable religion which 
for so long a time has falsely born the name of 
Christian. 

As it has always been, the God worshipped by 
man is a reflex image of himself. In old times, 
men tried to give shape to the god of their ima- 
ginations, in images of wood, stone, or metal ; in 
later times, they have embodied it in dogma and 
creed. 

To-day, every minister holds up to his audience 
the God of his sect or denomination to be wor- 
shipped ; and we have the Calvinistic, the Metho- 
dist, the Orthodox, the Catholic, the Baptist, and 
other Gods, each being the same false God of a 
false Christianity, clad in a different dress, and 
each claiming the exclusive indorsement of the 



282 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS, 

Christ ; and the individual man, led by men 
ei^ually as spiritually blind as himself, accepts 
one of these images as the truthful image of our 
God and Father revealed by the Christ. These 
images, which bear the likeness of nothing in 
heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the 
waters under the earth, are accepted by these 
deluded men ; and thousands to-day worship these 
mediaeval gods in ignorance of their true character. 

The general distribution of the Bible in the 
last two hundred years has greatly enlightened 
and ameliorated these so-called Christian dogmas. 
The teachings of the Christ have been received 
into the hearts of many whose love for humanity 
was greater than was the love of their theological 
god ; their hearts have swelled with the desire to 
alleviate suffering; and they have exerted them- 
selves for the salvation of men from the eternal 
torture they believed awaited them. Cruel and 
revengeful laws have been annulled ; the slave 
has been made free ; prisons have been governed 
with more humanity ; hospitals, homes for the 
poor, and institutions of charity, have arisen under 
this influence. 

Gradually the belief in the fatherhood and love 
of God, and the brotherhood of man, is entering 
into the heart, and is becoming embodied in the 
lives of men ; and the glorious evangel of the 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 283 

Christ, in all its beauty and loveliness, is begin- 
ning to dawn ; and mankind are making ready to 
break the chains of bigotry and superstition which 
have so long bound them, and are ready to leap 
forward into the glad life and freedom of the king- 
dom of God. 

LOYALTY TO GOD. 

The Christ, in announcing the law of love to 
God, claims as his due the whole power, energy, 
and being of man. Love and loyalty are almost 
synonymous terms. A man shows his love for his 
country by his willingness to suffer, and, if needs 
be, die for it, as has been shown by hundreds of 
thousands, in all ages and countries. So Chris- 
tianity has its roll of hundreds of thousands who 
have shown their love and loyalty by suffering and 
death. While the emblem of loyalty, in the one 
case, was the flag of their country, the emblem in 
the other case, for both Catholic and Protestant, 
was the same cross of the Christ. That is the 
symbol which unites all Christian sects and de- 
nominations. In both of these cases, they gave 
the whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, to the 
accomplishment of their object, in loyalty to their 
country or their God. 

This loyalty God requires at all times. " Thou 
shalt have no other gods before me," he says. 
You may have other gods, but they shall be 



284 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

secondary, subsidiary. To the Deity belongs the 
first place ; none shall be superior to or preferred 
before him. If any other god is given the prefer- 
ence, He leaves entirely, and cannot be approached 
until the offending god has been removed. He 
will not listen to the prayers, or answer the re- 
quests, of those who dethrone him from his supreme 
place in their heart and lives. To those who are 
loyal to him, he is ever present, upholding and 
supporting them in all circumstances, and com- 
forting them under all trials and afflictions. For 
instance : — 

One makes Ambition his god ; working for 
political power and fame, using every means to 
advance his personal popularity, giving his life 
and strength to that one object, without one 
thought of the God who made him, whose child 
he is, who gave him his exceptional powers to be 
used for the benefit of his fellow-men, instead of 
using them for his own base and selfish ends. 
These powers used in subjection to, and under the 
guidance of, the Deity, for the well-being of man, 
would have made the possessor a benefactor of 
his race ; but, used for selfish ends, they become 
a burden and a snare to their possessor. 

Others make Wealth their god, unmindful of 
their obligations to the God who gave them 
being. They work day and nighty use every 



OTHEB CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 285 

means, fair op foul, to accomplish their selfish 
ends, without thought of or care for the rights 
of others. They grasp every thing within their 
reach, until finally they have attained their ends ; 
they have wealth in abundance, but they are un- 
able to enjoy it. They have become the slaves of 
the god of their worship ; and he requires of them 
unceasing labor, that they may retain the wealth 
so basely accumulated, and they find no rest. In 
thus spending their lives, they have lost their own 
souls ; when they think they can begin to enjoy 
their ill-gotten gains, they are called upon to give 
them up, and they pass to their place without a 
single coin of the realm to carry with them. 
Poor, poor indeed, is such a man, without God or 
heaven. Such is the terrible state of the man who 
makes wealth his god. 

When he can no longer use it himself, he some- 
times attempts to make terms with the Deity by 
dedicating a portion to charitable purposes ; forget- 
ting that the wealth is not his own, but held by 
him simply as trustee or almoner of the Deity. 
" The silver and the gold are mine, saith the Lord." 
If he wishes to do good with it, let him dispose of 
it while living, and thereby, perhaps, gain the true 
coin of the realm, namely, love to God and man, 
the only coin man can take with him to the world 
beyond. 



286 ARYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

A common source of trouble, and perhaps the 
most pardonable, is the deification of Childeen. 
Parents receiving a child from God forget the 
hand that gave it, and place their affections 
entirely on the child. They watch over it with 
jealous care ; nothing is too good for it, and noth- 
ing must be denied it. The father works for it, 
the mother spends for it. As it grows, it becomes 
a tyrant ruling over both, and they become its 
willing slaves. Should it be taken away, then is 
their desolation complete. They have put the 
child in the place of God, and now in their trou- 
bles they cannot find him ; he has left them to 
their god, and he is dead, and they are comfort- 
less. 

Others, again, make the Senses their god. 
They are in the enjoyment of exuberant health. 
They enjoy the beauties of nature, the sea, moun- 
tain, and forest ; to ride, to walk, is happiness. 
They enjoy the beauty and fragrance of the flow- 
ers ; the fruits in their season delight their taste ; 
the birds make melody in their ears, and they 
revel in creature enjoyments. In their young 
manhood, every thing is delightful. God has 
filled the earth with loveliness, for the use and 
pleasure of his children. Forgetting the Author 
and Giver of these good things, they make these 
and other sensual pleasures the object of their 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 287 

lives, and thus become the slaves of their senses. 
Animal pleasures soon pall ; without God there is 
no such thing as happiness ; and man seeks in new 
and forbidden paths some new source of delight ; 
and thus palled, satiated, and dead to all high 
aims, he finally grovels in the dead waste of drunk- 
enness and despair, a victim to the god of the 
senses. 

One of the saddest, and, owing to the generally 
high social standing of the votaries, perhaps the 
most dangerous in its influence on others, is the 
god of the Intellect. We find scientists, pro- 
fessors in our colleges and institutions of learning, 
physicians, and even those claiming to be minis- 
ters of the gospel, who have exalted the intellect 
to the position of supreme god ; who, in bowing 
down and worshipping this god of the intellect, 
have dwarfed their whole being. Unable to find 
God by their scientific tests, or measure him with 
their yard-sticks, they almost doubt his existence ; 
they cannot hear, see, touch, taste, or smell him ; 
and, bewildered, they doubt. Their reason tells 
them there must be a first cause for what they see 
around them, but it does not give them light. 
The things of the spirit are spiritually discerned ; 
the intellect cannot reach so high. These votaries 
of the intellect grope in darkness and blindness 
for a first cause, and we see them carried away by 



288 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

every fresh intellectual craze, and seeking in vain 
for rest. 

In these instances, we see the danger of placing 
any other god in the place of the Supreme Being, 
whose children we are, and who demands the first 
place in our affections. His command is essential 
for our welfare, and we cannot disobey without 
great injury to ourselves. 

All these gods, as subsidiary to the Supreme 
God, are deities of beneficence, and, under the 
guidance of Omnipotence, shower down blessings 
on the heads of their votaries ; but, elected to the 
supreme place, they become veritable demons; 
their blessings are turned into curses, and their 
votaries become their degraded and miserable 
slaves. 

TffB SECOND GARDEN OF EDEN. 

For four thousand years after the deluge, the 
Aryas again slept the sleep of animal existence, 
having fallen from the former position so far, that 
they were but little in advance of their earlier 
brothers when they threw off their nomadic hab- 
its and life. Again they entered the Garden of 
Eden, which was not now the peninsula of Hin- 
dostan, but the world ; and again were they re- 
quired " to dress it and to keep it." 

In the persons of the Persians, the Greeks, and 
the Romans, they again adopted civilization, and 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS, 289 

gradually took up the arts and sciences which 
they had so long before laid down. 

Jesus, the Christ, revealed to them for the sec- 
ond time the tree of knowledge, and showed 
unto them the tree of life. Again did they par- 
take of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. God 
and his laws were again made known to them, 
and they were enabled to judge between good and 
evil; and again they recognized the tree of life, 
and saw clearly the way. 

Again the Aryan learned that the serpent of 
temptation must be placed under his feet, that his 
animal instincts must be placed in subjection, and 
used for the happiness of man and the glory of 
God the Father. 

Again God rescued the woman from the degra- 
dation of the animal, and placed her in the arms 
of man as a helpmeet for him, and waits to hear 
for the second time the acknowledgment of Adam, 
that woman, whom he has honored by choosing 
her as the transmitter of his life, the mother and 
teacher of all his children, is " the mother of all 
living." 

Through the Christ they have again obtained a 
knowledge of a life beyond, of an immortality for 
which they long, and which makes the loveliness 
and grandeur of this present world grow dim 
before the glories of the eternal world in view. 



290 ABTAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

This tree of life is still guarded from seizure by 
the flaming sword of God's requirements ; it is 
still in his hands, and both God and Christ unite 
in showing unto man that the only way to obtain 
its fruit is to do his will. 

Again has God taught the Aryas that all men 
are his children, the objects of his care and love ; 
that, while man is the father of the fleshly body 
which perishes, he is the Father of the spiritual 
body which has the power to live forever. 

God has for the second time placed in the 
hands of the Aryan race the destinies of mankind. 
Again they have passed, or are passing, through 
the early experiences depicted in the allegory. 
By observing these they can trace the progress of 
this their second trial, mark the steps already 
taken, and those yet in the future. May they 
take warning, and not follow in the decline and 
fall of their fathers ! 

Eighteen hundred years have passed since Jesus 
the Christ revealed to the Aryan race for the 
second time the tree of knowledge and the tree 
of life ; yet how few of those calling themselves 
Christians have partaken freely of the fruit of 
the tree of knowledge, or seen in all its beauty 
the tree of life ! 

God required the Aryas to dress and keep the 
garden: yet they have allowed it to be overrun 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS, 291 

with foul and pestiferous weeds, and its paths to 
be obstructed by filth and debris. The foul and 
baleful tree of false Christianity has grown tri- 
umphantly, and almost hid from sight both the tree 
of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree 
of life ; its interlacing branches have presented 
an almost impenetrable barrier; year after year 
it has ripened, and sent broadcast its poisonous 
fruits of religious fanaticism, self-righteousness, 
uncharitableness, intolerance, persecution, and 
death. The rank weeds of religious hate and 
animosity have grown up around it, the tangled 
vines of bigotry and superstition obstruct the 
way, and the thorny hedges of sect and dogma 
prevent advance. 

Yet every year there have been a few who 
have pierced through all these obstructions, and 
obtained the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of 
good and evil, and have seen in all its beauty and 
freshness the tree of life ; and through them we 
know the trees are still there, and can be reached 
by those who are earnest and persevering. 

It is the first duty of the Aryas to remove the 
hedges of sect and dogma, to clear up the tangled 
vines of bigotry and superstition, eradicate the 
weeds of religious hate and animosity, and to dig 
up and destroy utterly the tree of false Christian- 
ity, that it may no more bring forth its baleful 



292 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

fruit for the poisoning of the nations. They 
should also remove and cast out the pestiferous 
weeds of ignorance, and the filth and debris cast 
from the dry branches of old and dead faiths 
which obstruct the paths of the garden, that the 
tree of knowledge may be easily reached, and its 
fruit freely partaken of, and that the tree of life, 
and the way thereof, may be seen and recognized 
of all. Then shall the Aryas be able to go into 
all the world, proclaiming to all nations the glad 
evangel of the love and fatherhood of God, the 
brotherhood of man, the kingdom, law, or govern- 
ment of heaven, the immortal life, and the way to 
obtain it. 

For five hundred years the Aryan race had 
ruled the civilized world. The Hamite race of 
Egypt had sunk into its original insignificance. 
The Semites of the Euphrates Valley had become 
merged in their conquerors. The Jews alone, of 
all the inferior white races, still had a national 
existence. They had accomplished the work for 
which they had been created as a nation. They 
had been the instrument in the hands of the Deity 
to again bring forth his evangel ; but they were 
not to promulgate it. They did not accept, but 
rejected it, and crucified the man through whom 
it was revealed. The obligation was not on the 
Semites, but upon the Arj^as, to " till the ground 
from whence they were taken." 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 293 

To give to all mankind this evangel now again 
placed in their hands, is the duty still devolving 
on the Aryas of to-day. Moved by the doctrine 
of hate promulgated by Calvin, they have en- 
deavored to save mankind from the eternal dam- 
nation of hell. Are they ready to believe that 
" God is love " ? that the love of man for his 
fellow-man is but the faint reflection of the love 
that God feels, and has shown in his creation for 
his children, the offspring of his Spirit, and the 
objects of his daily care ? 

Can man believe that his desires to save his 
brothers and sisters from the tortures of the 
damned, are immeasurably surpassed by the desire 
of the Deity to save them from the shame, anguish, 
and torture of remorse, which will cause the guilty 
soul to cry out for the rocks to cover him and 
hide him from his own degradation and sin ? 
Will the Aryan races of to-day promulgate his 
evangel of love, that all mankind may know and 
serve and love him ; that his will may indeed be 
done on earth, even as it is in heaven ? 

Aryas, the full revelation from God our Father 
is in your hands. What say ye ? 



294 ARYASy SEMITES AND JEWS. 



THE COMPLETION OP THE SECOND REVELATION, AND THE 
END OF THE JEWISH NATION. 

It is difficult for us, surrounded as we are by 
Christian influences and habits of thought, to 
realize the ignorance, barbarism, religious fanati- 
cism and bigotry, the hatreds and passions, of the 
Jews at the Christian era. 

At that time, by their continual intermarriages, 
they had established a physiognomy and character 
known and acknowledged by all ; which, by the 
same process, they have continued to the present 
time ; a face and character as distinct in type as 
are the Chinese. 

Let us take the Jews as they are to-day in 
Europe and Asia; carry them back to their 
isolated position as a nation in their own land, 
instead of wanderers in strange lands; add to their 
present characteristics, the gross ignorance and 
fanaticism of the time mentioned, and this fanati- 
cism increased by their hatred of heathen nations, 
and by their belief in the brightness of their own 
destiny. Even then, we can hardly conceive of 
the rancor and bitter hate which they felt and 
showed to their conquerors, and the pride with 
which they looked down on all other nations. 

More especially was this the case with the 
higher classes ; the priests, the scribes, the Phari- 



OTHER CHRISTIAN- SUBJECTS. 295 

sees, the rich, the influential and learned. They 
were proud and arrogant ; looking down upon the 
poorer classes with haughty contempt, and upon 
all other nations as heathen, worshippers of idols, 
as people detested by Jehovah, and as doomed 
sooner or later to become the bondmen and 
servants of his chosen nation. 

This hate was intensified by the expected advent 
of the Christ, whose special mission was to free 
them from the detested bonds of the Romans ; 
establish the kingdom of heaven, or rule of 
Jehovah, upon earth ; and place them, as the ruling 
people, upon a pinnacle of power and glory. 

For many years the hope and expectation of a 
Messiah had reigned in their hearts, and now the 
time had arrived for the fulfilment of the proph- 
ecies. These prophecies they fully believed in 
their earthly sense, and daily awaited the coming 
of the promised Messiah with ever-increasing 
impatience. The Roman yoke galled them the 
more from their belief in its now short duration ; 
and it led them to frequent outbursts of fnry, 
accompanied by expressions of disdain and con- 
tempt. These ebullitions of feeling, both private 
and public, called forth the stern and retributive 
action of the Romans. 

With feelings and expectations so excited, we 
can readily see with what contempt they would 



296 ARYASy SEMITES AND JEWS. 

look upon the miracles of the Christ, with what 
impatience and scorn they would hear of his claim 
to be their Messiah. 

What! this poor carpenter's son, a Nazarene, 
followed by a rabble of the lowest class, fishermen 
of Galilee, — their Messiah ? their king ? the 
conqueror of the Romans ? Impossible ! , Where 
was his army ? Where his mighty acts ? Where 
were the signs of his power ? He might have the 
power of miracle to a small extent ; he might be 
a prophet ; he might be a forerunner of the Mighty 
One: but he their Christ? God forbid! They 
could not listen with patience to his pretensions. 

It was impossible for the Jews, with their high- 
wrought expectations of military power and gioiy^-^tijdli' 
of dominion and rule over the whole world, to 
give up all their long-brooded schemes of revenge, 
all their dreams of glory, all their ambitious 
hopes, and listen to this minister of peace and 
good-will, this preacher of righteousness, this 
man who taught the forgiveness of enemies, the 
returning of good for evil, the submission to and 
patient endurance of wrong. Jesus, the Nazarene, 
could not and should not be their Christ. The 
Christ was to live and rule forever ; he could not 
die. They would prove that he was not the 
Christ, by putting him to death. 

In the coming of the Christ, the destiny and 



OTHER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS. 297 

work of the Hebrew nation was completed. It had 
been created for that purpose alone ; that purpose 
accomplished, the Deity had no further use for 
it, and the end came. The nation that crucified 
the Christ could not live. 

" He came unto his own, and his own received 
him not ; but as many as received him, to them 
gave he power to become the sons of God." 

TffE ESSENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

It is very possible, that in the interval of time 
between the utterance by the Christ of his teach- 
ings, and the recording of them by the apostles, 
while the most striking and important of them 
would be firmly impressed on the memory, and be 
recorded verbatim, other sayings would be varied 
in their verbal construction, retaining the original 
meaning only. In the process of translating, the 
belief of the translator would color his translation, 
and the careless or intentional changes of the copier 
make other changes in the record. But, in all 
essential points, the records coincide. 

Leaving out the birth and childhood of Jesus 
of Nazareth, and taking the record of his manhood 
as Jesus the Christ, they agree on these points: 
namely, that the Christ had extraordinary en- 
lightenment and power ; that he claimed to be the 
Christ, ai:id in proof referred unhesitatingly to the 



298 ABYAS, SEMITES AND JEWS. 

miracles he performed as sustaining that claim, 
and miracles in abundance are testified to bj the 
Evangelists ; that as the Christ he had been taught 
of God, respecting what he should teach to man ; 
that, being so taught, he proclaimed as the words 
of God, the great and until then unsuspected 
fact, that God was our Father, and we the children 
of his love and care ; that there was a kingdom of 
heaven and an eternal life which we might obtain 
bj doing his will. 

Thej also concur in the statements, that this 
Christ was publicly crucified on the cross ; that 
on the third day he arose from the tomb, and was 
seen of his disciples and others. This was also 
testified to by his disciples unanimously. 

The essential points of the Christ's teachings 
are those mentioned above ; and the essential 
points of his life are his crucifixion, and resurrec- 
tion from the dead. 

These things are not only recorded and testified 
to by the Evangelists, but are also indorsed by all 
the apostles in their public utterances. They are 
the substance of the teachings of the apostles, 
including Paul. These teachings dominate the 
writings of the New Testament ; they are the woof 
and warp thereof, and cannot be eliminated with- 
p-^t the destruction of the whole fabric^ 



APPENDIX. 



EARLY CIVILIZATION IN THE EUPHRATES VALLEY. 

Our previous volume ended with the dispersion of 
the Aryas occupying the Euphrates Valley, as the 
result of war with the Turanians. As yet we have 
no historical records covering the time intervening 
between that event and the call of Abram. Egyp- 
tian history points to two events of moment which we 
have related. We believe that future researches will 
bring to light records confirming the truth of the 
history revealed in the allegory. 

In this Appendix we have given extracts from 
various Assyriologists establishing the fact of an 
advanced civilization, which must have existed thou- 
sands of years previous to the reign of Sargon I., 
B.C. 3800. 

Professor Sayce says, " The Semitic conquest must 
have been a gradual one. The evidence of language 
shows, that, when the Semites first came into contact 
with the civilization of Accad, they were mere desert 
nomads, dwelling in tents, and wanting even the first 

299 



300 APPENDIX, 

elements of culture. These, however, they soon ac- 
quired from their neighbors ; and, with the trading 
instinct of their race, quickly made themselves indis- 
pensable to the agricultural Accadians. Ur and the 
other towns on the western bank of the Euphrates 
were the earliest places in which they settled, but 
they soon overflowed into the whole plain of Sumir 
(Shinar)." 

The date of the Semitic irruption is unknown ; but 
as a Semitic king, Sargon I., was reigning B.C. 3800, 
and at that time the Turanian language had become 
nearly obsolete, it is apparent that the Semites must 
have made their appearance within two or three hun- 
dred years of the departure of the Aryas. Throwing 
off their wandering habits, they adopted the manners 
and customs of the Turanians, learning from them the 
arts and sciences of civilization. Constant increase 
from others of their race who also adopted a civilized 
life gradually enlarged their numbers ; apparently they 
intermarried with the Turanians ; and eventually, being 
a superior, they became the ruling, race. The Tura- 
nian language gradually died out, and was replaced by 
the Semitic. 

In absorbing the Turanian civilization, knowledge, 
government, and religion, they also adopted many 
Turanian civilized, technical, and scientific words and 
names, — the same thing having been previously done 
by the Turanians, when they learned of the Aryas 
their arts and civilization. The Turanians gave to 



APPENDIX. 301 

their rulers the title of "shepherds" or "shepherd 
kings," which title we find was adopted by the 
Semites. 

Professor Sayce, writing of what he calls the " primi- 
tive population of Babylonia and Assyria," says, "they 
belonged to a race which may have been allied to the 
Turanian or Finno-Tartar. At all events, it spoke an 
agglutinative language, which has many affinities with 
those of the Ural-Altaic family. This primitive popu- 
lation was supplanted by the Semites, — the Casdim, 
or conquerors, of the Bible, — at some unknown period 
before the second millennium B.C. 

"Before the Semitic period, and before the earliest 
period of which we have contemporaneous history^ the 
Accadian character had been classified and arranged. 
. . . From the earliest period, the literature of Chaldsea 
was stored in public libraries. According to Brasus, 
Pantibibla, or 'book town,' was one of the antedilu- 
vian cities of Babylonia ; and Zisuthros (the Chaldsean 
Noah) had buried his books at Sippara before the 
flood." 1 

Not being aware of the existence of the Aryan race 
in the Euphrates valley previous to the Turanian occu- 
pancy, these writers have accredited to this nomad 

1 Besides the Assyrian books specifically mentioned in this 
Appendix, we have been indebted to Smith's " History of Baby- 
lonia" and " Assyria from the Earliest Times," Budge's "Baby- 
lonian Life and History," and Professor Sayce 's ** Fresh Light 
from the Ancient Monuments." 



302 APPENDIX. 

race the learning and civilization which they received 
from the Aryas. This should be borne in mind in 
reading the extracts relative to the early civilization 
of this locality, as obtained from Ass3a-ian sources. 
" Accadian " is a provisional name given by Assyriolo- 
gists to the nation or nations preceding the Semites, 
and should be held to designate the Ar^^an, as well as 
the Turanian, race. 

During the reign of Sargon I., B.C. 3800 (the 
earliest monarch of the Semitic race yet known), 
the Turanian language had died out, or become nearly 
obsolete. 

As all the learned works on astrolog}^ astronomy, 
magic, the hymns and prayers, in fact, most of the 
literature of the people, were written in the Turanian 
tongue, the king ordered the priests to gather together 
from all the country the Turanian tablets and records, 
caused many of them to be copied, and others to be 
translated into the Semitic language, and gave direc- 
tions for the completion of dictionaries, grammars, and 
vocabularies, to aid in the study and understanding of 
the language. 

Professor Sayce, in ''Assyria, its Princes, Priests, 
and People,*' says, "The Accadian standard work on 
astronomy, the 'Observations of Bell,' was compiled 
originally for the library of Sargon I. at Accad. It 
treated of various matters, — eclipses of the sun and 
moon, the conjunction of the sun and moon, the 
phases of Venus and Mars, the position of the pole- 



APPENDIX. 303 

star, the changes of the weather, the appearance of 
comets, and the like. . . . The immense collection 
of records of eclipses indicates the length of time 
during which observations of the heavens had been 
carried on. As it is generally stated whether a solar 
eclipse had happened ' according to calculation ' or 
'■ contrary to calculation,' it is clear that the Baby- 
lonians were acquainted at an early date with the 
periodicity of eclipses of the sun." 

Speaking of the cuneiform writing, he says, — 
" The Accadians had been the inventors of the hiero- 
glyphic, or pictorial, characters out of which the cunei- 
form characters had afterward grown. Writing begins 
with pictures, and the writing of the Babylonians 
formed no exception to the rule. The pictures were 
at first painted on the papyrus-leaves which grew in 
the marshes of the Euphrates ; but as time went on, 
a new and more plentiful material came to be employed 
in the shape of clay. All that was needed was to 
impress it, while still wet, with the hieroglyphic pic- 
tures, and then dr}^ it in the air. . . . When once the 
discovery was made, that claj^ could be employed as 
a writing material, it was quickly turned to good 
account. All Bab3'lonia began to write on tablets of 
clay ; and though papyrus continued to be used, it 
was reserved for what we should now term editions de 
luxe." 

Professor George Smith, in his ' ' History of Baby- 
lonia," says, " Accadian literature was very extensive, 



304 APPENDIX. 

and the libraries with which the whole country was 
stocked were full of treatises on all the branches of 
knowledge" pursued by these ancient people. He 
credits them with " inventing the wonderful system 
of writing, called from the shape of the characters 
' cuneiform,' or wedge-shaped." 

The Babylonians, the immediate successors of the 
Accadians, he says, "originated our astronomical 
system. . . . Mathematics, measures of time and ca- 
pacity, weights and scales, laws and government, and 
every thing known to ancient times, received study 
and attention ; while the arts of building, sculpture, 
painting, gem-engraving, metal-work, weaving, and 
many others, made proportionate progress." . . . 
But "they had a religion of the lowest and most 
degrading kind, . . . which had a multitude of gods, 
who were supposed to bring about in an irregular and 
capricious manner all the changes in nature, and all 
the misfortunes which happened to the people." 

Samuel Johnson, in his last work on "Oriental 
Religions," volume on Persia, in the chapter on Cunei- 
form Monuments of the Accadian and the Assyrian, 
says, — 

"The primitive civilization of the Mesopotamian 
basin was not Semitic, but Turanian or Ugro-Finnic. 
This is now recognized by the best scholars, by Oppert, 
Sayce, Lenormant, Schrader. A race whose language 
is agglutinative, allied to the Finnic, Tartar, Etruscan, 
it may be, — at all events, to the Mongolian family, — 



APPENDIX, 305 

brought the earliest cuneiform writing to this region, 
composed its earliest annals, developed a sj'stem of 
magic out of which came the ascendency of the 
Chaldees, and laid the foundation of its mythology. 

"The records of this primeval civilization, which 
was flourishing in Chaldsea at least forty centuries ago, 
and perhaps a thousand years earlier than that, have 
been carefully preserved. If the Semitic Assyrians 
who supplanted the ' Accad and Sumir ' had done 
nothing else but translate their contents from the older 
language and cuneiform type to which they were com- 
mitted into their own current writing and tongue, not 
only preserving the originals, but providing for their 
study the appliances of lexicon and grammar, and all 
with a scrupulous historic affection amounting to a 
filial piety, like that of the Chinese in these matters, — 
they would have entitled themselves to the lasting 
gratitude of mankind, and can never be charged with 
having lived to little purpose ; and this they have 
thoroughly done. 

'' The records of the old Accadian kings, from Lig- 
Bagus of Ur down, are jejune, — mere items of temple 
and tower building, their names now given in Semitic, 
now in Turanian. But their literature was preserved 
in libraries located in the numerous cities of Baby- 
lonia ; and from these the Semitic Assyrians not only 
brought the great works of poetry, mythology, science, 
and magic, which they translated and studied so care- 
fully, but also probably derived their own system of free 



306 APPENDIX. 

public libraries, like those of S argon and Asshur-bani- 
pal, into the inner working of which we can look to-day 
with astonishment that there is nothing new under the 
sun. The literary capacity of these old Turanians is 
perhaps the most remarkable fact in history. The oldest 
of epics, to which the name of Izdubar has been pro- 
visionally given, is an elaborated product of Accadian 
genius, forty centuries old, and shows how early the 
poetic faculty of man found inspiration in the great 
lights of heaven. This marvellous epic, with its twelve 
great legends based on the twelve zodiacal signs, 
turning their Accadian names into dramatic personifi- 
cations, and the process of the sun through their suc- 
cessive mansions into labors of a mythic hero, which 
are curiously paralleled or repeated in the Semitic and 
Aryan forms of the Hercules myth ; interweaving also 
the lunar phases in a form which is the prototype of 
that wide-spread cycle of myths wherein a dying god 
is mourned by the spirit of love in Nature, and sought 
by her in the under- world, — the marvellous epic is 
worthy to be called the cradle of mythologies, even 

from what we already know of its contents 

'^The most characteristic thing about Accadian 
civilization is the passion for literature. In its old 
deluge myth, as reported by the Greeks from Berosus, 
the Chaldaean Noah (Xisuthrus) is bidden to bury the 
sacred writings at Sippara, his native city, before 
the flood comes ; and there, after he has been taken 
up to heaven, his followers return to recover them. 



APPENDIX. 307 

Oannes, the fish-god from the seacoast to whom these 
primitive Chaldseans ascribe their culture, is expressly 
said to have brought them letters. . . . 

"The Assyrians who transmitted this Turanian 
wisdom illustrate the same laws. Their respectful 
heed to it and their patient care for its preservation by 
grammatical researches, syllabaries, lists of correspond- 
ing words, was a recognition of universal relations, an 
escape from race-prejudice, surprising at so early a 
period. It seems to lay the corner-stone of a cosmo- 
politanism which has since conditioned the progress of 
civilization. . . . 

"It is difficult as yet to determine how large a 
portion of Assyrian culture was derived from Acca- 
dian sources. The development was certainly con- 
tinuous, and even without the light thrown on it by 
cuneiform studies is clearly traceable to the seacoast 
at the mouth of the Euphrates. It is here that all 
ancient tradition places the earliest social, industrial, 
intellectual life of Western Asia. Hither, as Berosus 
reports from Babylonian records, came the mythic 
civilizers, Oannes and his Annedoti, — half fish, half 
man, — at repeated intervals, to teach rude men the 
arts of life." 

Assurbanipal (B.C. 648 to 626), one of the greatest 
of Assyrian kings, caused the ancient tablets 3'et 
remaining to be collected together from all parts of 
the country, and deposited in his library at Nineveh. 
He ordered numerous copies to be made of all the 



308 APPENDIX. 

valuable documents, and every care taken to preserve 
to future generations the knowledge therein contained. 

In the destruction of Nineveh, these literary treas- 
ures, being in brick rooms or vaults, were covered 
by the debris of the fallen walls of the building ; and 
there they remained until the excavations of Layard 
and others revealed them to our eyes. 

The dictionaries, grammars, and vocabularies pre- 
pared by S argon I. fifty-six hundred years ago have 
enabled the Assyrian scholars of the present day to 
obtain a knowledge of the Turanian tongue, which 
would otherwise have been impossible. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



f -^z 






''<--^ : v'^.?- 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 085 136 A g 






>/'.- i."*^*; 'T'VS 






. es 



' » * 1 I I 1 I 1 > 1 i ! >^ 



